Harrison
The business of sports tourism has no global showcase bigger than SportAccord. Every year, over 3,000 delegates representing 100 different sports from around the world gather to create the world’s single largest marketplace for event bidding and hosting. This year, I had the pleasure of attending in Bangkok, Thailand.
In the media world, sports strongly maintains its footing as the last viewing available to broadcasters. The tourism sector recognizes this trend and capitalizes to increase the positive impact and timeliness of hosting major events. Globally, the sports tourism industry is the fastest-growing sector within the travel industry, valued at $8 billion. The multiple tiers of benefits the sports tourism industry has are unmatched, ranging from job creation to unlocking government funding.
When looking at sports tourism growth, two main contributors stand out. The first is the rise of the experience economy, which is not some millennial trend or fad. In fact, you see generations from all walks of life looking to get more out of life. Because of this, unique conferences, music festivals and vacation tours are rapidly gaining traction. An example is CAMP, a conference that brings business professionals to “summer camp” in Big Bear, Calif. Regardless of interests or location, the demand for unique experiences is fueled by the growth of the experience economy.
The second contributing factor can be linked to the overall growth of the tourism industry. Tourism has been one of the largest and fastest-growing economic sectors in the world. In 2017, international tourist arrivals grew by 7 percent to a total of 1.32 billion and estimates there will be 1.8 billion international tourist arrivals by 2030.
These two factors contribute to the success of a sports tourism strategy for any community in the world. The difficult side of the equation is dealing with the costs of event bidding and hosting. One needs to be able to justify an event that may only appear in a community once a century. To manage such challenges, some destinations have been investing in building their own properties or partnering with local promoters to create annual events that provide evergreen benefits to their communities. One event, Crankworx, a mountain biking festival, has taken this model to entirely new heights.
Whistler is the final stop of an international tour that is part event, part marketing machine.scott serfas / red bull content pool
Launched in 2003 as The Whistler Summer Gravity Fest, Crankworx has expanded in 15 years around the globe into the Crankworx World Tour to take the excitement and energy of mountain biking to Rotorua, New Zealand; Innsbruck, Austria; and Les Gets, France; all before finishing off the tour in Whistler, B.C. The addition of international stops allows Crankworx to position itself as a global event, invest in key markets important to sponsors, and attract a deeper competitive pool by providing athletes more events and earning potential.
The genius is that the global stops of Crankworx serve as half event and half marketing machine to promote Whistler Bike Park. At each destination, Crankworx is building the sport of mountain biking, building brand awareness, attracting new enthusiasts, sampling the product with new partners, and driving visitors to Whistler.
The results? Crankworx World Tour has fueled the growth of its brand and unique locations in which it operates. This can be seen through the increase of Whistler Village occupancy rates, growing to an average of 90 percent on weekends and 80 percent of weekdays compared to prior respective 80 and 60 percent averages, making Crankworx the second-busiest time in Whistler Village, beat out only by Christmas.
Additionally, Crankworx has experienced an explosion in growth in its viewership, growing to 37 million views in 2017. A driving factor has been the natural story that has developed with the Crankworx World Tour. Mountain biking fans and enthusiasts around the world are able to watch their favorite athletes, anxiously waiting to see if any rider will win three slopestyle events in a year and be crowned the Triple Crown of Slopestyle. The increase in viewership has been a pivotal part in the growth of Crankworx global brand awareness leading back to Whistler to watch the finals.
The success of Crankworx can also be attributed to its ability to create unique and powerful partnerships to drive growth and awareness. A powerful example is Crankworx’s partnership with Red Bull to stage the Red Bull Joyride, a competition that fuses elements of dirt jump with North Shore-style mountain biking and often referred to as the Super Bowl of Mountain Biking. Another example is Crankworx’s 10-year agreement with Mountain Bike Events Ltd. in Rotorua, ensuring the stability of the event in the New Zealand market. Crankworx has even managed to attract the attention of other events like the international sponsorship conference, sponsorshipX. For the 2018 edition of the conference, sponsorshipX has chosen to partner with Crankworx in order to give its participants, sponsorship marketing professionals from across the globe, the opportunity to witness firsthand the growth and excitement of mountain biking.
The use of sports to market communities and regions has long been debated. Part of that debate is the use of public funds to build venues and subsidize required infrastructure. But when the venue is a mountain, ocean or lake, the economics of sports tourism provide a no-brainer argument to pursue.
Mark Harrison is the founder and president of the T1 Agency, and chairperson of sponsorshipX.
