Evaluating Resident Sentiment to Inform the Development of Sports Tourism B A S E D U P O N A W H I T E PA P E R B Y J E N N I F E R S T O L L , P H D , S T S , S P O R T S E TA
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A N D R I A G O D F R E Y, L O N G W O O D S I N T E R N AT I O N A L TA M M Y K O E R T E , L O N G W O O D S I N T E R N AT I O N A L
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As the country emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic downturn, the sports events and tourism industry has an opportunity to help guide a safe, strong, and swift recovery and increase destination awareness, quality of life, and community pride within local communities. In 2019, the sports tourism industry created nearly 750,000 jobs and brought more than $100 billion in economic benefits to communities across the United States. But beyond traditional metrics, recent studies have found important, though harder to measure, benefits such as community pride, resident quality of life, and increased destination brand perception/awareness. “Gauging the sentiment of the local populous toward sports events and tourism events in the local community is an important way to ensure an expanded and aligned value proposition back to the destination,” says Al Kidd, Sports ETA President and CEO. Longwoods International launched the initial research related to resident sentiment toward tourism in 2018. The study found that by evaluating and tracking the perceptions of local stakeholders, policymakers are able to gather support for, and meaningfully develop tourism, that benefits the community at large. However, in many locations, the Covid pandemic halted the ability of destinations to adequately leverage resident sentiment of travel. 21
According to Tourism Economics, sports-related travel, estimated at 180 million people in 2019, was projected to decrease $20 billion in sports-related direct spending in 2020 due to the pandemic. The wide disparity in guidelines, policies, and protocols across the country are creating difficulty for re-opening strategies within the industry. As the nation rebuilds from the economic downturn, the sports events and tourism industry must seek to galvanize strong partner and community relationships in order to return to normalcy as quickly, and safely, as possible. The Longwoods International’s 2020 National Resident Sentiment study examined public perceptions of sports events and tourism from multiple angles, including positives and negatives of economic development, environmental impacts, “over-tourism,” and quality of life. “What we have learned through our research over the past several years is that resident sentiment is a vital insight to fully inform both advocacy and planning for any type of development, including sports,” commented Amir Eylon, President and CEO of Longwoods International.
