Sports and tourism: here is the initiative of Verga Palermo
Sports to promote tourism in Sicily: let’s find out together about the campaign of Palermo’s historic basketball team. From online initiatives to targeted projects to enhance the area and attract tourists from all over Italy. How much is sports tourism worth in Sicily?
“More sports more tourism”: an all-out campaign
From the team playing in the top league to the youth sector and the little ones in the minibasket, the basketball club of the Verga Palermo became the spokesperson for an important initiative that sought to inextricably link sports with tourism. “More sport more tourism” is precisely the name of the communication campaign that aimed to promote tourism in the Sicilian Region through various initiatives. From the presence of
totems information present during home matches, but above all to a close collaboration with the regional tourism department that fits into the project SeeSicily, the portal that allows both tourists and insiders to range through the myriad of possibilities that the Sicilian territory offers from a tourism point of view. The campaign had an impact both nationally and internationally with the creation of promotional spots that featured the most beautiful and important Sicilian beauties as locations. The tam tam
generated on social networks and the web then sparked a curiosity and word of mouth that inevitably brought added value in the tourist recovery and the choice to visit this beautiful land.
Sports tourism: the trump card for promoting the area
Tourism based on sports events? The numbers are clear: about twenty million people in Italy play one or more sports, or 34.3 percent of the population. Think of all the people who travel for a particular event and very often with family and friends. Sports tourism is inextricably linked then to the territory, and for this reason it is important to organize not only the calendar in detail, but many are the municipalities that try to match collateral services that allow all participants at the same time to visit the city hosting the event. Another factor not to be underestimated that results in the basis of sports tourism is the element of thephysical activity and thus the promotion of a positive value such as precisely that of a healthy lifestyle. Sport therefore winks at promoting the area: once the event is over, participants and only wish to enjoy the day “out of doors.” The goal is to bring to the forefront a slow tourism which guarantees a total experience from a point of view of not only sports but also landscape, history, art, and food and wine. There is no place from north or south that cannot fit into this slice of the market, and Sicily has a golden opportunity to jump at.
Sicily: what’s missing for the big leap?
Beautiful views, archaeological sites, villages among the most beautiful in Italy. Not only that: breathtaking coastline and beaches and divine cuisine. Sicily lacks nothing at all, yet in terms of sports-related tourism,
the Island of a Thousand remains the tail-end and third-to-last in terms of sports clubs. The lack of facilities and arenas to accommodate the much demand has led to clipping the wings of a type of demand that the Sicilian Region must take into account. We need close cooperation between local authorities, sports clubs and all tourism stakeholders that will enable the new figure of the tourist-sportsman to have a unique travel experience and not only during the summer season, but all year round. After being the queen of tourism
undisputed 2021, one can think of the future with optimism, and one of the most highly developed vacation products in the immediate future is definitely tourist attraction activities related to active and sports tourism.
Davide Donnarumma