SPORTS TOURISM • • TEAMs: Annual Sports Tourism
Conference in North America The Commonwealth Conference
on Sports Tourism (inaugurated in Malaysia 2008) • Global Marketplace for Sports Tourism (Thailand 2011)
Alongside this, there is the inevitable
growing number of sports tourism awards to which cities and destinations can aspire. These include Sportcal’s biennial
Sports Cities and Nations Guide. The 2011 guide reviewed 150 cities in 40 countries and evaluated each city's capacity and performance at hosting major events. In 2009, Germany topped the nations
list, while Berlin was named number one in the cities listing in 2011. Meanwhile, TSN Communications’ 201
1 T
ing Cities cites its top five as Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles. The World Travel Awards has
CASE STUDY 2 – CATALUNYA: THE RULES OF THE GAME
Catalunya Turisme has recently pub- lished detailed criteria that municipali- ties and rural areas have in order to meet and to be certified as a ‘sports tourism destination’. Destinations are independently audited to validate if they meet these criteria, which include: a set of generic destination requirements such as appropriate tour- ism products, services, marketing and professionalism; general sports infra- structure provision to facilitate sport- ing activity; and the specific require- ments for individual sports, ranging from calm and rough water canoeing to athletics, ATB and alpine running.
op US Sport-
recently introduced a Leading Sports Destination Award for each of the Regions of the world. Sportsbusiness. com introduced the Ultimate Sports Cities Award in 2006. The 25 cities on the candidate list for 2010 included Lausanne, Glasgow, Doha and Valencia, together with Moscow, Madrid and Manchester. The winner was Singapore, with London winning the European Award.
URBAN THEMED ZONES One of the most significant impacts of the interest in and appeal of sports tourism has been in the context of city planning, development and branding. Over the past 10 years, a growing number of cities have constructed sports facilities in specific areas or ‘clusters’ to create themed sports zones. Branding this type of development as
sports cities is giving the destination height- ened prominence and acting as a catalyst or springboard for urban regeneration. Examples include: Sport City, which
Manchester developed as part of the city’s 2002 Commonwealth
Games legacy strategy; International Sports Village, which Cardiff established as part of the ongoing regeneration of the capital’s Cardiff Bay; the Aspire Zone in Doha (Qatar) – an adaptation of the original development to host the 2006 Asian Games; Disney’s Wide World of Sports – a 220-acre extension of the Disney theme parks in Orlando (US), Dubai Sports City (UAE)– an assemblage of world-class venues and branded sports academies; and ESPN’s Sports Zones in Chicago, Baltimore and Washington. In practice some would argue that
clustering sports within a defined urban zone is nothing new: it was, after all, the design principle of Olympia in ancient Greece and it's a concept that has shaped the design of Olympic parks in modern times. The contemporary interpretation of the sports-themed urban zones is primarily to help city branding and positioning by directly connect- ing city development with sport, international sports events and international sports tourism.
Dyer and Gower, Swansea City, celebrate after being promoted to the football Premier League
38 SPORTS MANAGEMENT HANDBOOK 2012
www.sportsmanagementhandbook.com
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WWW.SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/ BECKY STARES
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