Sports Tourism and the woes of inter- regional travel

Sports Tourism without a doubt has been one of the fastest growing money earners within the global economy.

To put its impact into perspective, according to the World Tourism Organisation (WTO), Sports Tourism is estimated to be worth approximately US$800 billion. That amount accounts for about 10% of the world tourism industry.

These statistics speak loudly to its contribution not only to the world economy, but the trickle down is felt especially by the host countries.

We too, in this neck of the woods, benefit directly and indirectly from the spin-offs of Sports Tourism.

As recently as last week, St Vincent and the Grenadines hosted the XXXIX National Lotteries Authority Junior Caribbean Area Squash Association (CASA) Tournament.

As such, St Vincent and the Grenadines was part of one of the largest Junior CASA events ever to be hosted.

It is estimated that for that week of hosting, more than 400 persons altogether, came in from Barbados, The British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, The Cayman Islands, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.

Indeed, that was Sports Tourism in full flight, albeit in a relatively small way, but St Vincent and the Grenadines’ economy got that much needed booster shot.

Hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops, hawkers, taxi operators- just to name a few, were able to cash in from the presence of our regional tourists.

Modestly put, the visitors could have injected over EC$ 600,000 in direct spending to the coffers of this country.

Of course, in the first instance we would have welcomed the occupancy as it followed on the heels of Vincy Mas 2023, when demand for rooms was high as well.

But as we are quick to open up our hospitality, food, beaches and the long list of goodies that St Vincent and the Grenadines has to offer, we have to fix the other side of the fence, that is, travel ease and reliability.

Yes, since 2017, St Vincent and the Grenadines has been comforted with the presence of the Argyle International Airport (AIA).

Essentially, though that much awaited and welcomed international facility has served with aplomb, we are still lagging when it comes to regional travel.

The latter came strongly to the fore earlier this week when there was a struggle to get persons out to their respective countries, after enjoying just over a week of Junior CASA Squash.

While it was no fault of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Squash Association’s executive, the frailties of travel into and out of the country were magnified.

Delays and disruptions in travel are commonplace the world over, but for countries like St Vincent and the Grenadines, the effects are more far impactful given the lack the options in terms of inter- regional travel.

As a whole, the region suffers when there are delays, thus placing persons’ schedule out of sync and placing undue stress on the stranded passengers.

Beyond the inevitable, there is that constant task of finding seats to get to the host country or the ever- debilitating cost of travel.

With the hosting of sporting competitions/tournaments/championships, the economies in the region are affected when there exists that bug bear of travel woes.

The onus is on the various governments, especially those in the smaller territories like St Vincent and the Grenadines, to make that conscious effort to have some semblance of reliability in air travel.

Our situation is exacerbated by the fact that there is not a structured alternative via the sea.

Hence, while we here in St Vincent and the Grenadines are happy to have sporting events come to our shores, we must be mindful that travel operators seemingly are not concerned about their responsibilities.

They often pace themselves with nonchalance, with the notion that the travellers are at their whims and fancies.

Sports Tourism cannot be a simple concept as the other subsets, and stakeholders must be in line to make the product viable.