Promoting Cultural Exchange through Sports Tourism

Sport tourism is a multi-billion worth of business that is becoming one of the most dominant areas of travel and tourism industry worldwide. It plays a critical role in the economic development of host countries as a result of the influx of passionate, high-profile, high-spending sports tourists, whose direct benefit to a destination is "cash". Thus, when there is an event that attracts attention, the local economy is expected to be greatly at an advantage.

But of course, sports tourism is not all about making money from foreign visitors as it provides wholesome and more valuable benefits for both the locals and tourists too. One of which is facilitating cultural exchange to promote global peace and development. As a matter of fact, the practice of sports is generally recognised as an instrument for promoting intercultural relationships. This is because it disregards social classes and geographical borders, enabling everyone to meet new people and share experiences.

In addition, what makes sports tourism a valuable tool for peace is that it is capable of promoting social integration. This is possible by giving people of different culture and social classes a common ground or thing to share and talk about. Take for instance basketball. Most Asian, American, and European men can watch a basketball game and discuss about it immediately without the need for formal introduction. This is because athletics is capable of connecting and bringing together people of the same interest. Thus, countries that are capitalising on sports tourism should also focus their effort on using the activity as a tool to promote cultural exchange and international unity.