The Sports Tourism Sector - Case Study Example

? Case study of evaluate an event in the form of a case study Table of Contents Introduction 3 Part 3 Stakeholder’s role in Sport Tourism Sector 4 Contemporary Significance Analysis of Australian Open 5 Part 2 6 Several Issues that may affect the sustainability 6 Impact of Australian Open 7 Part 3 7 Ability to plan different Sport tourism Event 7 Importance of Factors related to timing, scale and location 8 Awareness of Resource Implication 9 Conclusion 10 References 12 Introduction Sports tourism sector is the fastest growing sector in the travel and tourism industry across the globe. Sport tourism refers to traveling that includes either watching or participating in a particular sporting event apart from usual environment. Sport tourism is an emerging sector of global travel and tourism industry. The global industry generates 600 billion US dollar every year. This study will evaluate Australia-based sports event. The Australian Open is taken under consideration in this study as the event. This case study will analyze and evaluate the impact of Australian Open on the economy of the country. Moreover, this study will reveal the contribution of this sport event in the growth of sports tourism sector. Government and sports ministry of Australia, several stakeholders including national Tennis agencies, state government, several state tennis academies and institutes are considered as important resources of Australian Sport Tourism Industry. Part 1 There are several classifications of sport tourism in Australia. Australian sport tourism can be segregated into three parts, such as sport events tourism, active sport tourism, and celebrity and nostalgia sport tourism (Hinch and Higham, 2011, p.45). Australian Open can be considered under active sport tourism wherein the individuals or players participate in the sport events to win this prestigious Tennis Title. In Australian Open, greatest global tennis players come to Australia in the month of January. Australian Open is a popular sporting event that blends the enjoyment and fun of tennis with traditional cultural and social activities that celebrate the love of Australians. Australian Open gained huge popularity and acceptability across the globe. People of Australia love tennis and love to watch the Australian Open as all the popular global tennis players take part in this sporting event in order to win this tennis title. Every year the popularity and acceptance of Australian Open is significantly increasing at a constant rate. Economic development is the major consequence of this Australian Open. It is important for government, sports ministry and state or national tennis academies to develop future plan for this specific sporting event. Stakeholder’s role in Sport Tourism Sector Australian sport tourism sector is one of the major economic drivers. Australian Open is one of the popular sporting events in which leading global tennis players used to participate in order to win the prestigious Tennis Title. This Australian Open is one of the most significant tourism catalysts (Smith and Stewart, 2010, pp. 1-13). This sporting event attracts several global tennis lovers and spectators. Moreover, various scenic beauty and tourist spots forced the spectators to visit Australia. The country gets benefited in both ways. Ultimately, the revenue increases. It plays an important part in country’s development. There are several sport event organizations in Australia. Australian government and ministry of Sports developed Federal Sport Policy (McCabe, 2005, pp.85-106). This policy is delivered through a range of significant structure. It includes Anti-Doping Authority of Australian sports, Department of Ageing and Health and Australian Sport Commission. Australian Open is managed by the Tennis Australia. This organization is regulated by the sports ministry of the country. Government and sports ministry of Australia, several stakeholders including national Tennis agencies, state government, several state tennis academies and institutes are continuously trying to increase the number of global spectators. They are trying to keep the sporting event significantly transparent (Green and Chalip, 1998, pp.275-291). Moreover, these agencies or state academies are contributing into this sporting event organization to improve the infrastructure. Australian Open is considered as then traditional sporting event in which several global leading and popular tennis players generally take part. Winning Australian Tennis Title is highly prestigious to these players. Sport, especially tennis, is considered as the religion of Australians. Every Australian loves to play and watch sporting events. Moreover, each and every Australian loves to travel across the country in order to visit the heritage and historical places within Australia. The government of Australia along with the sport tourism sectors’ stakeholders understood this fact effectively. Moreover, they have understood that tennis is a popular sporting event across the globe. Australia is known for its spectacular and attractive tourist spots. The stakeholders significantly tried to promote their sporting events along with tourist spots to attract global sports and nature loving spectators and visitors through several promotional activities. However, they have succeeded to attract a large spectator base. Contemporary Significance Analysis of Australian Open Sport tourism events help an economy to grow. A government of a country along with several sports academy and advertising agencies can develop a potential global spectator base through effective strategy formulation and implementation. Australia is considered as an attractive tourist spot across the globe. On the other hand, Australians love several sporting events as according to their tradition and culture, they love to take part in several sporting events. Sport tourism industry in Australia is expected to grow at 10.5% growth rate by 2018. Sport tourism industry is playing a major role in Australian economy. Sport tourism industry contributes about 7% of total tourism sector (Pettersson and Getz, 2009, pp.308-326). During Australian Open, several tennis loving people across the globe come to visit Australia and witness the event. Australian Open is used to hold every year. Stakeholders of several sporting academies and organizations focus on the promotional part of this event in order to attract more global spectators. It is known to all that Tennis is one of the most popular sporting events across the globe (Brown, Jago, Ali and Mules, 2011, pp.244-256). Various leading global tennis players participate in the Australian Open. In addition, people across the globe get attracted to visit Australia as this country is enriched with several leading and popular tourist spots. Australian Open helps to generate significant revenue for the country. It helps to bring social, political and economic sustainability within the country. Part 2 Australian Open is considered as the major Australian economic driver. National Institute of Industry and Economic research revealed that 2004 Australian Open brought a gross economic benefit of 203 million US dollar. What is most important, this sporting event attracted more than 100,000 visitors or spectators to Melbourne. Several Issues that may affect the sustainability Recent financial crisis and economic recession affected the global economy. Increasing unemployment rate, low disposable income of people, low GDP rate, increasing interest rate and limited purchasing power of people are the major consequence of global economic distress. Australia is also suffering from this global economic slowdown. On the other hand, several terrorist activities within the country are stopping tennis lovers to visit Australia. In addition, several tennis players are also feared about this issue. The government of Australia is trying to increase their sport and tourism activities to improve their social and economic condition (Fredline and Faulkner, 2002, pp.103-114). On the other hand, the Australian government is trying to tight home security to overcome terrorism issues. Impact of Australian Open The Australian Open increased the economic benefit by 45% over last decade. The economic impact of Australian Open was revealed in the year 2004. According to a survey, 17, 802 global visitors came to Australia in order to observe the sporting event. Moreover, 43 percent of total Australian population experienced all the actions of the event. A total count of 48,883 interstate visitors experienced Australian Open 2004. It was considered as the major economic growth driver of Australia in the year 2004 (Mallen and Addams, 2013, p.84). Leisure and tourism sector was going through economic boom at that point of time. In the year 2005, Australian Open contributed extra one billion US dollar to the previous year’s revenue. Government of Australia utilized this revenue in several social and economic development activities. Part 3 The government of Australia and Ministry of sports should develop a long-term plan for the sports event in order to expand it. This part of the study will propose several effective plans that can help the government to develop long-term plans. Ability to plan different Sport tourism Event Sport tourism planning is important to extract success from several sporting events. The purpose of this planning is to help the society and community to understand several aspects of sports tourism. This plan will help the sporting events to get involved in emerging tourism market segment. Australia is popular for several famous sporting events. It is the tradition of Australian culture to watch or participate in sporting events. The demand of sport tourism is significantly increasing due to globalization and advanced technology. Now-a-days, people can watch several global sporting events through online or television networks. Therefore, several Australians expect to watch and experience various global sporting activities in their home country. So it can be stated that the demand for sport tourism event is significantly increasing within the Australians (Saayman, 2012, p.363). Therefore, it is important for the sport event organizing academies or agencies to expand the knowledge of sports tourism events before introduction process. Lack of demand can make it difficult for the organizations to generate significant revenue and maximize profit through these sporting events. Then the agencies or the organizers need to assess the community capacity. Excess supply comparing to market demand can send a serious message across the globe. In future, Australia can lose potential visitors or spectators of Australian Open if the management of the event cannot reach up to the mark as per expectation (Robertson, 2006, p.71). Setting objectives and developing vision is important for the organization. This planning process will help to gauge real output as per the demand. Lastly, the organizations or the agencies need to develop effective strategies approach to meet the event objective. They need to implement effective promotional strategy for the events and nearby tourist spots to enhance the economic growth. Australia can take the advantage of economies of scale through effective sport tourism planning structure or template. Importance of Factors related to timing, scale and location Australian Open generally starts in the latter half of the year. Australian Open of 2014 will be played in Brisbane. Therefore, it is important for the sport tourism event management to consider the importance of time and location. December is the month of festivals and Christmas. At this point of time people are used to enjoy several festivals and Christmas carnivals. Tourism and sports ministry try to target global visitors and spectators in December. On the other hand, people who love to tour and travel cannot miss Australia as the country is enriched with several popular and attractive tourist spots. The government of Australia needs to develop effective plan in order to increase its popularity for long-term. The sports ministry and state sports academy need to increase the capacity of seating on the show courts. Moreover, government can motivate the stakeholders to invest in the sports academy. An effective investment can increase the infrastructure of sports that can pool more number of tennis loving tourists. Establishing a roof over the Margaret court arena and improving media and player facility should be taken care of. Effective media facility will help the media people to cover the event more effectively. It will increase the popularity of the event in several global places. Favorable season, scale and location will motivate the tennis lovers to visit Australia. Brisbane is considered as one of the developed city in Australia augmented with attractive tourist spots. Looking into these factors, it can be stated the government and the sports federation should develop a strategic action plan. It is true that the demand for watching Australian Open along with December carnivals is increasing slowly (Schussler, 2011, p.17). Government needs to maintain the social capacity in order to control the huge crowd. They need to provide effective supply according to the current market demand. Moreover, several aspects like transportation and lodging and all other aspects need to be monitored and reviewed accordingly. Awareness of Resource Implication Ministry of sports or Tennis Association of Australia should have a significant vision about 2014 Australian Open. First of all, awareness of resource implication is important for this sporting event. The association needs to create awareness about the sporting event in the mind of global customers. Effective promotional activities will help the country to develop a significant global spectator base. The organizations or associations need to increase the knowledge of people about the Australian Open and several attractive aspects of this sporting event. They can integrate the tourism part with this promotion of sporting event. This strategy will be both cost and time effective. If Australian government and training association can continue their good performance it will bring several economic and social benefits (Smith, 2006, p.85). It will help to develop the community and regenerate the old and traditional urban areas seeking development and improvement. Moreover, it could be termed as the civic pride as the country is going to host one of the biggest sporting events. In terms of economic benefits, Australia will gain a long term promotional benefits through the succession of plan. This sporting event will help to increase the property value. Moreover, it can integrate several political and economic benefits. It can bring additional trade into the country. This sporting event can enhance the business development scenario of Australia. Lastly, this awareness of resource implication can induce construction and development expenditure. On the other hand, this sporting event will play an important role in the development of tourism sector (Weed, 2008, p.543). Therefore, it can be stated that the Tennis Association of Australia need to develop a strategic plan to achieve expected result through Australian Open 2014. Conclusion Sports tourism sector is the major growth driver of global economy. Australian Open has major contribution in the country’s economic growth. Several leading global players take part in this championship. It motivates tennis lovers from several global areas to visit Australia. On the other hand, Australia is popular for numerous attractive tourist spots. Government of Australia and several stakeholders are trying hard to increase the popularity of Australian Open in global areas. Several issues including economic and political threats are affecting the sport events. It is the responsibility of the government to overcome these issues and develop a favorable environment for this event to pool more number of spectators from several global areas. References Brown, G., Jago, L., Chalip, L., Ali, S., and Mules, T., 2011. Events and destination management’, in Destination marketing and management: theories and applications. International Journal of Event management, 13(1), pp.244-256. Fredline, E., and Faulkner, B., 2002. Residents’ reactions to the staging of major motorsport events within their communities: a cluster analysis. Event Management, 7(3), pp.103-104. Green, C., and Chalip, L., 1998. Sport Tourism as the Celebration of Subculture. Annals of Tourism Research, 25(2), pp.275-291. Hinch, T., and Higham, J., 2011. Sport Tourism Department, 2nd ed. NSW: Channel View Publications. Mallen, C., and Addams, L., 2013. Sport, Recreation and Tourism event Management. 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