…any lessons?
The 2022 World Cup begins on the 20th of November, and Ghana has been fortunate to be part after all the twist and turns. This will be an opportunity for Ghanaian supporters visiting the oil rich country for the first time. If you have not made plans to travel to Qatar, for the sake of the Black Stars, please do travel for an experience of a life time. Will Ghana consider ever hosting the World Cup? Well, as things stand now, we are not there yet. Hopefully, in the near future we may consider putting in a bid.
Hosting the World Cup is no joke. More than 1.2 million fans are expected to travel to Qatar to watch the World Cup. Forecasts indicate that Qatar’s economy will grow by 3.4 percent in 2022 and 2023, thanks to the World Cup boost; but will slow down to 1.7 percent by 2024. The CEO of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, Nasser Al Khater, has said the profit from the World Cup is expected to be around US$17bn. He said the cost of infrastructure and construction expenses for the World Cup has reached US$8bn, which is relatively close to the cost of previous World Cups. Qatar has built expressways, seven soccer stadia, hotels and skyscrapers, spending at least US$229 billion on infrastructure, according to budget documents. Around half of Qatar’s population is employed in the construction industry. Hosting this type of tournament obviously come with many benefits to the country as demonstrated by the investment made by Qatar. If Ghana ever happens to host the World Cup, the returns to the national economy through the multiplier effect will be enormous. Before then, we need to demonstrate that we are in a position to host the tournament by investing heavily in infrastructure. That’s the only way out. It’s no wonder only South Africa has been the only host coming from the African continent. If we do not see the hosting of the World Cup as a priority and work at it, we can be assured that Europe, America and Asia will continue to host these tournaments and continue to benefit economically, thus making their economy even much better than those of us in Africa.
The San Diego Tribune reports that the Ghana Football Association will be smiling to the bank after it was revealed that the country has receive US$9 million for qualifying to the World Cup.
Should Ghana progress out of Group H, the country will make an additional US$4 million while a quarter final place will see the West African nation make US$25 million. The winner of the World Cup will receive US$42 million as prize money. Meanwhile, an initial US$2 million was given to every country that qualified to begin preparation. As the country desperately needs some dollars injection into the economy, all Ghanaians should be praying Ghana goes past the group stages to the quarter final, and for the first time, reach the semifinal. It is also reported that Ghana will spend over US$8 million at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, according to the country’s Minister of Youth and Sports, Mustapha Ussif.
The benefit of sport tourism
Sport tourism refers to the experience of travelling to engage in or view sport-related activities. Two very important groups are involved in sports tourism; the athlete or sport men and women and the spectators which also include the media. Over the past 30 years, researchers have defined ‘sports tourism’ in many different ways. A universally accepted starting point is that provided by Standeven and De Knop (1999) in their book ‘Sports Tourism’. “All forms of active and passive involvement in sporting activity, participated in casually or in an organised way for non-commercial or business/commercial reasons that necessitate travel away from home and work locality”. According to the National Tourism Laboratory and eCommerce of the University of Illinois, it is generally recognised that there are three types of sport tourism: Sport Event Tourism, Active Sport Tourism, and Nostalgia Sport Tourism.
- Sport event tourism
Sports event tourism includes hallmark events such as the Olympic Games, the World Cup, football championships, the African Cup of Nation, the All African Games, etc.
- Active sport tourism
Those individuals who travel to participate in sporting events comprise the active sport tourism category. These participatory events can take on a wide variety of forms in a wide variety of sports. Golf, kayaking, tennis, fishing, snow-mobiling and surfing are just a few examples of the sports that people travel to participate in. One researcher has gone one step further and subdivides this type of sport tourism into ‘Activity participants’ and ‘Hobbyists’. Activity participants are those individuals who are amateur participants who travel to take part in competitions in their chosen sport, while Hobbyists are those individuals who engage in sport-related travel as a form of leisure. Subdividing the sport participants in these various categories enables the gathering of the data and analyses being very effective.
- Nostalgia sport tourism?
Nostalgia sport tourism involves travelling to famous sport-related attractions. Example visiting the Ohene Djan Sport Stadium, the Azumah Nelson Sport Complex, and the El Wak Sport Stadium, etc. A tour of the facilities and learning about the history and significance of such edifices are vital in promoting this kind of tourism in Ghana, most especially among the youth. The regional inter-schools have been an avenue to unearth new talents. It must also be used as a means of promoting domestic tourism. Many students may not know how the name El Wak came about, yet they find themselves there participating in the competition. The annual Sheikh Sharubutu Ramadan Cup is a football fiesta, which is named in honour of the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Usman Nuhu Sharubutu. It brings together various Zongo communities to compete in a one-day football gala as part of activities marking the end of Ramadan every year, and to promote unity among the youth in the Zongo communities. If these sport events are organised regionally, coupled with some sightseeing tours, it will enable many Ghanaians to visits other regions, thereby contributing to the local economy of the host region.
In Barcelona 2001 the (then) Secretary-General of World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), together with the (then) President of the International Olympic Committee, were joint signatories to a communiqué recognising sports and tourism as “forces for mutual understanding”. EUROSPORT (a multimedia eDiscovery broadcaster) has recently estimated that sports tourism is worth US$800bn, constituting more than 10 percent of the international travel and tourism receipts. In some destinations, sports tourism accounts for 25 percent of all tourism receipts, rising to as much as 55 percent in Australia and parts of New Zealand. According to the World Trade Organisation, travel done exclusively for the purpose of attending or competing in an organised sporting event has been estimated as a multibillion industry in the world.
Unlike Qatar expecting 1.2 million visitors, in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, a study by the South African Tourism revealed that just over 300,000 tourists visited the country. This led to a radical change of mindset from tourists who visited the country during the tournament – most of whom were skeptical about the country before the World Cup because of what they had read in the media about the country before they arrived. Among other things, the tourism report noted that most people who visited the tip of the Southern African continent are keen to come back to explore the country further as tourists.
The growth of sports tourism over the past few years has led to the successful organisation of many sport events across the globe. Following the success of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Spain has become one of the top four most visited destinations in the world. Over the years, researchers on sport tourists have focused on their economic impact upon a host community, although measuring spending patterns is a difficult proposition. Globally, the economic impact of tourism is one of the most researched but least understood areas of tourism.
Philip Gebu is a Tourism Lecturer. He is the C.E.O of FoReal Destinations Ltd., a Tourism Destinations Management and Marketing Company based in Ghana and with partners in many other countries. Please contact Philip with your comments and suggestions. Write to [email protected] / [email protected]. Visit our website at www.forealdestinations.com or call or WhatsApp +233(0)244295901/0264295901.Visist our social media sites Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: FoReal Destinations
