The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas is witnessing “exponential” growth in sports tourism, a Ministry of Tourism official telling Tribune Business this nation was benefiting from ‘millions’ in extra visitor spending as a result.

“Sports tourism is growing almost exponentially,” said director of sports tourism development, Tyrone Sawyer. “We just had Battle 4 Atlantis, which generated a tremendous amount of air stopover visitors and room nights.

“While that was happening we had the Junkanoo Jam tournament, which is the NCAA women’s basketball tournament, in Grand Bahama. That would have brought anywhere from eight-12 teams, 500 participants, about 1,000 rooms nights, expenditure in the millions.

“Coming up we have got the Atlantis Crown Gymnastics tournament. Last year we had about 400 gymnasts, and each gymnast brought three persons  with them. We are already at 400, and the event doesn’t take place until December 16-19,” Mr Sawyer added.

“I have just come back from Florida promoting Marathon Bahamas. Marathon Bahamas takes place on the Martin Luther King birthday weekend in January. That will generate about 350 visitors, and again you have a scenario where they each bring two to three persons with them.”

Mr Sawyer added: “Sports tourism has done well, and when we can have a calendar of events that we look to every year, events that bring air stopover arrivals to the country and room nights, you’re talking about new money coming into the country.”

Mr Sawyer said Bahamas Speed Week Revival was now an important event on the sports tourism calendar.

“This event is extremely important. It is what we call a hybrid event in that it creates branding and awareness through publicity that it generates. It also brings people to the Bahamas, and when they come that’s a direct benefit that translates into visitor arrivals and incremental room nights. We are very pleased with this event and we see it having a a great impact on our tourism sector,” he added.

Mr Sawyer said last year’s Speed Week brought about 300-500 visitors to the Bahamas.

“We are hoping to match or exceed that this year. We think that’s going to happe,” he said.

“In terms of the publicity it generates in our core tourism markets, Europe and UK, it’s in the millions. From a sports tourism perspective, what we would like to do is generate events that we put on our sports calendar year after year.”