How to Create a Long Lasting Sports Tourism Legacy
Establishing your sports facility to encourage or capitalize on sports tourism takes time, patience and thoughtful planning. While Sports Facility Advisory can help you through facility planning and execution, you also need to give thought to the future. Profit, success, and engagement with an enthusiastic and diverse user base are your plans for the more immediate future – but, you also need to remember the importance of the legacy of your facility and, ultimately, your brand.
How Does Sports Tourism Translate into a Legacy?
The word “legacy” have a heavy connotation, and might not be something many associate with a sports facility. However, if you think of it a longer-lasting and farther-reaching reputation, something that your facility earns through the positive feedback, reviews, and engagement from your user and your community, it starts to make more sense. “Legacy”, in this context, is your brand and facility’s lasting impact on your users, the community, and how you affect the general perception of sports facilities. So, where does sports tourism fit in?
The Popularity of Sports Tourism
Sports tourism is a major source of income for a lot of sports facilities that do their research. The world is now more connected than ever, and popular sports and sporting events in different countries, or that involve multiple countries, teams, and players from all over the world are much easier to access. Having an awareness of rising trends in enthusiasm for various sports and sporting events around the world gives any good sports facility or fitness provider an edge.
Listening and Communicating to Users
It will never be enough to simply watch or read sports news to find out what might be on the rise among enthusiasts. Communication and engagement with the people who use, or will be using your facility is the best source of information. This is where your use of social media and the internet in general is vital. The internet gives any organization and almost-infinite number of opportunities to communicate with customers, users or clients. Having open and transparent dialogue is a major factor for two reasons:
Getting Your Ideas
This is a simple, fast and reliable way to gauge the interest in your community for a particular sport, activity, or sports tourism in your area. With a good balance of researching and analyzing the responses, you can give your users what they want.
Being Open, Honest and Authentic
Perhaps the bigger benefit of the two is the perception of your facility within your community. If you stay on top of conversation and comments – whether they are positive or negative – more people will feel comfortable will asking questions and sharing their experiences.
Active Engagement in Your Community
The final foundational element of your sports tourism legacy is actively engaging with what is happening in your community. If other facilities or centers are putting on particular sporting events, take note of their success and popularity, and consider ways you can capitalize, and even cooperate with other organizations. The wider you reach with appealing to sports tourism trends and demand, the more benefit other businesses and users will see, and the more this will bolster your reputation. If you combine this with timely and open communication, you foster a great sense of loyalty, trust, and dedication to your sports facility which, if you can sustain it, becomes your legacy.
Build Your Legacy with the Sports Facilities Advisory
Creating a lasting legacy through sports tourism and providing a good sports facility is far too complicated to cover in a single blog entry – but Sports Facilities Advisory has the skill, experience, and resources to help. Contact us today and lay the foundation for your enduring reputation.