MUMBAI: Indians seem to be showing more interest in travelling for sports events across the country or abroad, resulting in a 10-12% growth in the sports tourism sector, reports PTI.
“Globally, sports tourism is a multi-billion dollar industry. According to estimates, global sports tourism was worth $7 billion in 2017. While it is a mature industry overseas, in India it is in infancy (stage),” Cox and Kings head of Relationships, Karan Anand told the newswire.
“There has also been a shift in the interest for other sporting events (apart from cricket) like the soccer World Cup or the Olympics. We see 10-12% growth in arrivals to these destinations, when a major sporting event takes place,” he added.
While countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and England have been favoured by Indians to travel and watch cricket matches, in the last 10 years there has been a certain paradigm shift towards watching marquee events such as the Olympics, the FIFA World Cup and Grand Prix Formula One motor events. The atmosphere in them is said to be the main reason for gaining the experience.
Anand continued that that this market has more men as consumers who team up to watch matches. Yet he says that top MNCs and companies are using such tours as a chance to help improve team building.
Similarly, Manmeet Ahluwalia, the marketing head of Brands at Expedia India also said that a change in travel patterns can be seen in the Indian market, more so since the inception of the IPL in 2008. The 2011 World Cup added more fuel to the fire as Indians were keen to travel to watch their favourite superstars in action.
“We noticed another interesting trend during the 2015, ICC World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. Cricket fans explored these two destinations as among the most preferred honeymoon or holiday destination,” Ahluwalia told PTI.
“Many people also booked their honeymoons in accordance to the match schedule so they can also support their favourite matches. We saw the bookings for these destinations go up by 35%,” he added.
Abhijit Mishra, director, Kayak, India and Middle East, said the sports-tourism industry is growing at an unprecedented rate. “Indians have always loved both sports and travel, so holidays around sporting events are the perfect combination to satisfy two cravings at once”, he noted.
“Many people use these trips as an excuse for a longer holiday, combining their sporting passions with a general love for travel. On the other side, many in the tourism industry have also begun to realise the value of wooing these tourists – many of them fall into the high-spending category, stay longer than other tourist categories, are high-calibre and often stimulate other tourism.”
