Time is now for sports tourism
WITHIN today’s pages we have two appeals for tourism to build on the success of the Island Games, including an innovative idea for the government to actively support sports tourism without risking a penny.
It’s the kind of sensible, innovative thinking that a cash-strapped States should be looking for and an ideal opportunity for government to get closer to sport – a gap which currently feels larger than ever.
But one suspects that the first move should have to be with the clubs and sports themselves. Prove you can stage an event and the rest will follow.
This weekend saw the first post-Island Games example of such an event. The BWCI Mini Soccer festival, organised by the Guernsey FA, has been running for more than a decade, with minimal public funding, yet this weekend hosted Bristol City and coaches and three junior sides from Jersey, most of which would have been carrying some parental support too.
We’re not a cheap destination so we do need to give visitors and, perhaps importantly, parents the reason to visit. And they will.
With the Guernsey Hospitality Association behind the concept, perhaps it offers the association and its members an opportunity to work with local sport to make sure such events can happen, and also prove their own commitment and case to the States about the future of tourism.