Dharmaraj's Blog

There are many different definitions of sports travel, from those involving travel for the purpose of participating in competitive sports, to those involving more leisure or adventure sporting activities.1 Thus, the extent of sports travel vary quite a bit. Sports tourism involves people traveling to participate or to observe sports. These activities may include people competing in an international event, such as the Olympics, or simply sitting amongst the audience watching the World Cup match.Inevitably, following sports travel, there will be consequential impacts. These may be classified under economic impacts, socio-cultural impacts, health impacts and environmental impacts. The increasing and important impact sport has in economic terms requires a more multi-disciplinary approach. The economic sector of sport has transformed itself in the last decade from a traditional Spectators-Subsidies-Sponsors-Local (SSSL)-model to a more global Media-Corporations-Merchandising-Markets or MCCM-model. The new sport model has executed forms of vertical integration in the industry and has created synergisms as an outcome of the relations between business and sport. Some of the economic developments are Broadcasting rights, merchandising, sponsoring, organizing of mega sporting events, multiplication effect of organizing a sport event, the mobile leisure society, sport tourism, sport and the impact on health, the public-private cooperation in building of sporting infrastructures, the betting industry, raising market share of sporting goods, shoes and clothing.