In February, sports tourism trade association Sports ETA electronically distributed the State of the Industry survey to its membership. The survey remained in the field for approximately five weeks and garnered responses from 149 destination marketing organizations — sports commissions and conventions and visitors bureaus — that exist to lure and/or operate sporting events to their respective markets. Here are some of the highlights, which were released to Sports ETA members last week:
■ Only 27% of destinations calculated or collected information on earned media estimates in 2019.
■ The average destination, regardless of budget, employed 5.3 full-time staff. It ranged from 1.6 people at destinations with a budget less than $1 million to 21.8 staffers at organizations with a budget over $5 million.
■ On average, 38% of all destinations surveyed owned an event — 58% of destinations with budgets over $1 million and 28% of destinations with budgets less than $1 million.
■ Approximately 73% of destinations paid bid fees in 2019. Half of the destinations with a budget less than $100,000 paid bid fees compared with 84% of destinations with a budget over $1 million.
