《TAIPEI TIMES》Sports tourism rising, tour operator says

People watch the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix in an undated photograph. Photo courtesy of KKday

By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter More Taiwanese and people from the Asia-Pacific region are timing their overseas travel to coincide with high-profile sporting events, including FIFA tournaments, data recently released by a Taipei-based online travel platform showed.

KKday said it began offering tour packages covering games from NBA, MLB, Nippon Professional Baseball and FIFA three years ago. It has since expanded its product lineup to include tickets to Formula 1 races.

Based on its data collected over the past three years, searches for sports tourism-related products on the platform have increased 65 percent, while sales of sports-related tours jumped about 40 percent, KKday said.

Meanwhile, more people opt to purchase tickets to overseas sports games via the platform, with the sales increasing more than threefold.

Sports-related tour packages account for about 18 percent of the platform’s tour products, it said.

In the past, people chose destinations first and planned activities later. Now, more people let sporting events determine where they go, the platform said.

“This shift in travel priorities has changed the timing of demand forecasts, the logic behind product design and the role of online travel platforms in the broader travel ecosystem,” it added.

The joint study commissioned by FIFA, the WTO and OpenEconomics estimated that FIFA World Cup could generate global output of US$80.1 billion, while the World Travel and Tourism Council forecast that the tournament would boost travel and tourism GDP in the US, Mexico and Canada by 2.1 percent to 6.4 percent this year.

The platform said that data showed two clear signals. First, more than 50 percent of people who purchase tickets to see a sports game would arrange tours two to five days before or after the game.

This has helped boost the demand for accommodation, dining and travel, it said.

Second, sports tourism is increasingly attracting mainstream travelers rather than just dedicated sports fans, as more people seek immersive, event-driven travel experiences, it added

KKday global market general manager Momo Chen （陳葦如） said more Taiwanese have made F1, MLB and NBA events the core of their itineraries, and arrange accommodations and city tours with those in mind.

“We are seeing an increase of younger people joining the sports-center tours. We are also seeing a rising demand for such tour arrangements from single travelers or small tour groups,” Chen said.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES