Sports Tourism
Tourism is considered as an important source of revenue of UK. Sport and sporting events play a major role in the development of UK economy, especially of tourism industry. Economic gain from sports tourism in UK amounts $ 1.5 billion per year. In the marketing of sports tourism relevant steps are taken by the government and it contributes much to the development of sports tourism in the country. Tour operators’ associations are interested in sports tourism. They offer attractive packages to the foreigners for watching sports events and visiting important sports centres in the country. Tourism information centres inform visitors about sports events. (Section 15: Tourism and Sporting Events. 2005).
Tourism industry and Economy
UK is a country which ispassionate enough in drawing people towards more sports events so as to allow their athletes to get encouragement from others. UK has been the stage for more than 80 world cup, European and common wealth championships and this forms the basis for the setting up of a new sports tour operator in UK. It is also a perfect destination for low budget longer tours and in-season sports tour. A wide range of sports events are being conducted in England, which include rugby, hockey, cricket, football and other sports events. In the year 2012, London will become the destination of the Olympic Games. So there is an increased need for setting up of a sports tour operator in London.
Industry and Economy Analysis
Sports tourism development in the country provides greater opportunity for business firms. The specific destination selected for the proposed business is London. It is an important sport destination in UK characterized by hosting of major international sports events. After all, it is the proposed venue for 2012 Olympics. Thus this location provides better opportunity to the new business. London is also a venue of various water sports activities. Boating, diving, sailing, surfing, and yachting are prominent activities. Canoeing, waterskiing and wind surfing are popular games attracting many sports tourists. Along with this, training facilities are also available in London. These are capable of attracting sports tourists to the location thereby contributing to the development of sports tourism in the region. (London Water Sports, 1997).
Tourism and hospitality sectors are highly developed in London. These sectors provide a significant portion of income to the London economy. They also support development in other sectors of the economy such as catering industry, accommodation, conference and exhibition venues, travel and tourism services, retailing, restaurants and leisure facilities. The job opportunities created by the tourism industry is over 275,000 and it is around 8% of London’s total employment. It is estimated that tourism industry is growing rapidly by an average of 3.4 % annual increase. The rapidly increasing tourism provides opportunities for both large scale and small scale profitable investment in the region. UK is the destination of major international sports events. Of them tennis at Wimbledon, cricket at Lord’s and the Oval, and rugby football at Twickenham are the major sporting events hosted by UK every year. These events are considered as a major source of revenue for the UK economy. (London: The Mayor’s Plan for Tourism in London. 2002).
There are many elements that motivate starting of sports tourism business in London. The main concentration is on the Korean people since they are more interested in sports and other leisurely activities. They are sports enthusiastic and have always enjoyed variety of sporting activities and games. They have a significant economic growth in the recent years and because of that the Koreans are finding increased spare time to involve in sports. At the national and the international levels also Korea has performed better in all sports events. Taking into concern the size and population of Korea and its performance in the international sports competition, its performance has been excellent. This shows their interest in the sports and competitions. It is the first Asian nation to succeed for the FIFA World Cup for seven times. They are excellent performers in sports like baseball, golf, archery, shooting, table tennis, ski jump, swimming etc. (Overview. 2008).
UK is a country who is conducting many sports events every year and naturally Koreans, as they are passionate towards sports, are attracted towards it. So there is an increased need for setting up of sports tourist operators so as to help the sports tourists who are visiting UK. The main sports activities of UK include athletics, basket ball, cricket, football, netball, tennis, cricket, golf, swimming etc. Since the sports events of both the countries are same, there is an increased attraction of the Koreans towards UK. So the sports tour operators in UK are providing increased facilities to the tourists mainly from Korea so as to attract them and the income earned can be used for the development of their economy and also for the facilitation of more sports events. (Sports Tourism to the UK).
Sports tourism has been recognized as an important means to create economic development through the development of tourism and advancement of the service sector. Even though the plan for setting up a sports tour operating business is for short term events, the costs are for longer period of time.
Planning is needed at various levels. The main planning process involves facility development, infrastructure development, event planning and marketing. It also involves planning at various levels for local and international site plans.
The sports tour operator offers a wide range of services like transport, accommodation and ancillary services. They also act as wholesaler and middlemen and also are the providers of many domestic, inbound and outbound services. Their main function includes carrying out the market research so as to identify the major sports event that is happening in the country and also to check whether that sport event is of interest to the targeted country (Korea). They have to contact the service providers and fix the cost of package of each of the functions like accommodation, food, transport and other ancillary services. The package has to be fixed separately and has to be marketed. The holidays should be properly administered and operated from UK. Overseas staffs also can be employed for this and also to offer post holiday customer care.
The sports tour operator should always keep a healthy relationship with the transport, accommodation, travel agents and other ancillary services sector. The impacts of the horizontal and vertical integration have to be checked and also they should be integrated along with the trade organizations like the federation of tour operators, association of independent tour operators and association of British travel agents.
They have to enter into different types of contracts with various organizations. Contracts have to be signed with the airlines, which include time series contract, part series contract, ad hoc contract etc. Accommodation contracts are also made with the hotels like commitment contract, allocation contract and ad-hoc contract. There are many other contracts with many other suppliers like car hire services, transfer companies, ground handlers and excursion providers.
The major products of the sports tour include package holidays, tailor made holidays and other ancillary services, which should be sold using methods like supplying brochures showing the facilities and the services available, through retail travel agents, direct selling through call centres and through internet. Global distribution system and view data can also be used for selling the sports tour product. There are many external factors that should be considered in the sports tour operations. The main factors include exchange rates, value of the Euro, the existing interest rates prevailing in the market, changes in the legislation related to the taxes, package holidays directives etc. The price of oil, natural disasters, and outbreaks of diseases, terrorist activities, war and other political changes will affect the sports tour operations. (Unit 16: The UK Tour Operating Sector (Level 3)).
Some of the major competitors in the sports tourism industry include Burleight travels, which conduct hockey tours, cricket tours, rugby tours, net ball tours, foot ball and multi sports tour. Sport options is another major competitor which manages tour to the best British football club games in the European competition and all English and the Scottish National football games. They also arrange trips to the major motor racing events. (UK Tour Operators Online).
Market research is an important technique that has to be adopted by the tour operator while conducting study regarding the sports tour operation business. While analyzing the market, demand for the sport tourism in UK has to be studied in detail. For that the market segmentation is done based on the various demand groups. One of the major demand groups is the top performance athletes from different countries. They look forward to those sports tourist operators who provide more access for training conditions and also for the competition. This group should be given more priority and consideration. They should be also given access to physicians, injury rehabilitation services and other performance related services. Another demand group is mass sports group, who mainly aims at preserving health and maintaining fitness. The convenience of the holiday regions and the quality of the sports facilities are the main consideration of this group. Another group is occasional sportsmen and women, who give less importance to sports but are more concerned about the recreational activities and also cultural sight seeing. Passive sports tourists are another group whose focal point lies in mega sports events and visiting famous sports sites. They mainly include coaches, attendants of the athletes, and media reporters. Sport tourism market is segmented based on the geographic area. Depending on the socio-economic characteristics of the target market, that is, based on the occupation and income of the people of the particular target market, the business has to be developed. Demographic conditions of the target market is also an important consideration for the development of the sports tourism market, since age of the people is a major factor that affects the markets. Young people are more interested in the sports than the married and the old people. So more concentration should be given to attract the young people of Korea to participate as well as to visit the sports events in UK. Based on the results of such market analysis, the sport tourism business can be developed so that it functions effectively and efficiently targeting the specific market segments. (Hinch and Higham, 2003, p.43).
There are number of sports tourism resources, which include the resources in the local, national and international market. The resources available for a particular sport will depend upon the sporting research, participants, nature and characteristics of the tourists who are visiting the country. There are many other important elements that should be taken into consideration, like the accommodation, transport facilities, tourist information services and other ancillary services that are offered to the tourists during their visit. Institutional arrangement forms an important resource for the sports tourism. Along with that the human and financial resources also add to the success of the national and the international sports events that are held. (Higham, 2005, p.20).
The main data sources include the Association of Independent Tour Operators (AITO), British Incoming Tour Operators Association (BITOA), which helps in the packaging and promotion of every sporting event. Its members have a wide access to all tourism products including the hotels, transportation and other ancillary services. The association also helps in accessing better rates for all tour related services. Tourist Information Centres which are located throughout UK also offer many services including ticketing services for the events. The British sports tourism department also helps in enquiries about the sports events. There are national and regional tourist boards which conduct campaigns and also exhibitions for raising the profile of events with the help of tourist board. Along with this the financial report of firms in the UK sports tourism industry is also analyzed for finding the industry growth rate. In order to find out the location advantages of London as a sports tourism destination, related sites like British tourist authorities official web site, BTA web site etc are also used. (Section 15: Tourism and Sporting Events. 2005).
Bibliography
- HIGHAM, James. (2005). [online]. Sport Tourism Destination. 20. Web.
- HINCH, Thomas., and HIGHAM, James E S. (2003). Sports Tourism Markets. [online]. Sports Tourism Development. 43. Web.
- London Water Sports: London-Boating, Canoeing, Diving, Sailing, Surfing, Yachting, Charter, RYA Courses etc. (1997). [online]. Tourist Net UK: UK Holidays at Your Fingertips.
- London: The Mayor’s Plan for Tourism in London. (2002). [online]. London Development Agency.
- Overview. (2008). [online]. Korea.net: Gateway to Korea.
- Section 15: Tourism and Sporting Events. (2005). [online]. UK Sport.
- Sports Tourism to the UK. [online].
- UK Tour Operators Online. [online]. Britain Express.
- Unit 16: The UK Tour Operating Sector (Level 3). [online]. OCR Level3 Nationals in Travel and Tourism.