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Sports Tourism
SPORT TOURISM
OBJECTIVE:
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To lead and assist the local community by establishing Florence/Lauderdale County and the Shoals area as a sport tourism and recreation destination. The Florence/Lauderdale CVB serves as a vehicle to support the creation, promotion and delivery of sport events for visitors, participants, partners and residents.
MARKET OVERVIEW/STRATEGY:
The 2021 season for elite bass tournaments proved to be a strong year. Our team hosted 9 tournaments with some record revenue events including the Bassmaster Elite and the Alabama North Regional Softball Tournament.
Our priority will still be placed on the creation of new, non-traditional sporting events including pickle ball, disc golf, corn hole and more outdoor oriented events. Working with the City of Florence to develop a tournament-size pickle ball complex has been a focus over 2021 and will continue in 2022.
An increased e ort will be placed upon working with event rights holders to direct more stays to Lauderdale County to ensure that partners see a ROI. Tournament hosting fees average $200,000 to $250,000 annually.
According to the National Association of Sport Commission’s (NASC) annual study in 2017, sport tourism was responsible for $11.4 billion in direct spending nationwide.
2022 TARGETS:
Establish a benchmark of 50 new quali ed leads
Make three (3) bids on future sporting events. One being a non-traditional sporting event
Increase the economic impact of events by 25% to $5,000,000.00 through tournaments.
Increase the total number of room nights booked by 7.5% to 7,000 through our sales e orts
