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The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), in collaboration with Barça Innovation Hub (BIHUB) and with the support of the Qatar National Tourism Council (QNTC), has announced the launch of the first UNWTO competition. for sports tourism. This initiative aims to identify projects and innovations that can transform the sports tourism sector in the near future.
The growing demand of tourists and the growing influence of sports on the popularity of destinations have made sport tourism one of the most promising segments of socio-economic development, attracting increasing public interest. The first UNWTO competition for sports tourism companies, launched by UNWTO and BIHUB, with the support of QNTC, seeks companies offering innovative ideas focused on solving real needs and processing knowledge gaps in the booming sports tourism sector.
In total, 20 start-ups will be selected by a panel of international experts and sport and tourism stakeholders from the public and private sectors, academia and civil society. The pre-selected start-ups will be announced on the competition website. The jury will then select five semi-finalists who will all be invited to Barcelona to present their ideas to sports experts, government representatives, tourism business leaders and international investors.
"We are pleased to partner with Barça Innovation Hub to harness the potential of sport tourism to stimulate creativity, innovation and sustainable growth. Through this competition, disruptive start-ups can come up with new ideas that will enable the sport tourism sector to contribute to the goals of sustainable development. We thank BIHUB for their vision and collaboration and, in the run-up to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, we thank QNTC for its support of this exciting project, "said the Secretary-General of Qatar. OMT, Zurab Pololikashvili, at the opening of the contest.
As part of the partnership with QNTC, the winning ideas will also be taken into account in Qatar, which is preparing to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup ™.
His Excellency Mr. Akbar Al Baker, General Secretary of QNTC, said: "At QNTC, we are convinced that sporting events have the unique power to bring the people of the world together. This is also why sports tourism is a key area of our tourism vision. . We look forward to seeing the innovative ideas that will come out of the first Sports Tourism Development Contest and hope that one of them will come to Qatar. "
Marta Plana, director of BIHUB, added: "We are very pleased to work with UNWTO to develop tourism in relation to the sports industry, a growing sector, and to identify companies with the talent needed to do this. Barcelona is a city of design and innovation, and a hub of tourism. At BIHUB, we want to make Barcelona the Silicon Valley of the sports industry and leverage our experience as a tourist attraction. The FC Barcelona Museum is the most visited museum in the Catalan region and more than 4 million people visit our land every year. "
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