WTO secretary-general Francesco Frangialli and IOC president Dr. Jacques Rogge signed a joint message earlier this year, in which they stressed that "sport and tourism share common goals: building bridges of understanding between different cultures, lifestyles and traditions; promoting peace and goodwill among nations; motivating and inspiring young people and providing entertainment and enjoyment to relieve the pressures of daily life to large sections of the population".
"Tourism and sport are interrelated and complementary," the message reads. "Sport - as a professional, amateur or leisure activity - involves a considerable amount of traveling to play and compete in different destinations and countries. Major sporting events, such as the Olympic Games, football and rugby championships and auto racing have become powerful tourism attractions in themselves-making a very positive contribution to the tourism image of the host destination."
"Both are powerful forces for development, stimulating investment in infrastructure projects such as airports, roads, stadiums, sporting complexes, hotels and restaurants-projects that can be enjoyed by the local population, as well as visitors who come to use them. And once the infrastructure is in place, these two mutually beneficial industries of tourism and sport become the motor for sustainable economic growth, the creation of employment and generation of revenues.”
It is in this framework that the WTO and the IOC started their cooperation in 1999 to strengthen links between tourism and sport and supported numerous initiatives in this field at national and international levels.
This week also sees the launch of a SportBusiness report on the subject, which assesses the benefits of event hosting, identifies regions in the world that benefit from sport tourists, highlights key markets and players and analyses sport tourism strategies.
