What comes in your mind when you think about having a vacation in an exotic part of the world? If you are like most people, you might associate the word vacation with scenes of relaxing on the warm sands of the beach, visiting famous sights, trying out interesting cuisine for the first time, or talking to the locals. True, these activities are fun and educational. However, for those who have more than a single dose of adventure in their system, these typical activities are somewhat boring. These adrenaline junkies what something else, something that will quench their thirst for thrills and adventure.
If you are one of these would-be adventurers, then sports tourism is for you. Sports tourism refers to leisure travel that entails either simply witnessing or actually participating in a sporting event in another region other than yours. Thus, as a sports tourist, you tend to stay away from the idle confines of resorts and hotels. Instead, you go to vibrant places such where you can get into the action. Mountaineering, rock climbing, windsurfing, and skiing in another country are just a few of the hundreds of activities that you can partake when you travel for sports. The sports-tourism bug has bitten so many people that it is now the fastest growing sector in the international travel industry. In fact, it generates up to 600 billion US dollars annually, around 25 percent of the global income generated by the entire travel and tourism sector.
As a traveler and a sportsman at the same time, you are doing yourself and the region a huge favour when you engage in sports tourism. For one thing, we all know that engaging in sports is healthy, both physically and mentally. Any sport, when done properly, can improve your motor skills as well as increase physical strength, vitality, and stamina. Engaging in sports also improves your well-being, confidence, self-reliance, and teamwork. If you need evidence, just look at the powerful, lean, and healthy bodies of the athletes in your local area or on TV during a sport broadcast. Just observe how they radiate confidence and display teamwork as they play their game.
Through sports tourism, you get to explore other extraordinary places that are so majestic that the word beautiful isn’t enough to describe the splendour. For example, let us say that you are a mountaineer who is specialised in climbing mountains in the tropics. You can expand your scope of the sport via alpine mountaineering, and to do that, you can travel to countries where there are tall snow-capped mountains. The act of travelling to a snow-laden nation, the challenge to scramble up the treacherous slope of a rock-and-snow mountain, and the indescribable feeling of being on top of the world looking at the huge expanse of wilderness below you can give you an overwhelming sense of triumph and wonder.
Finally, you help the places travel and tourism industry in a big way. For instance, you may plan to spend sports holiday to Greece. By participating in sports, visiting interesting sites, and meeting fellow athletes, you help promote the country. By paying for your stay in one of the best hotels in Greece, you help the country’s economy. Indeed, sports tourism is for everyone’s advantage.
