Basseterre, St. Kitts – Nevis
December 06, 2007
The year 2007 will go down in history as the most successful for sports tourism in St. Kitts and Nevis with a total of 1,797 athletes from 31 groups and a number of officials visiting the twin-island Federation.
With the CARIFTA Games slated for next March and two One-Day Internationals between the Australian and West Indies cricket teams in July, government is continuing to work hard to match and possibly surpass the 2007 figures.
Minister of State responsible for Tourism, Sports and Culture the Hon. Richard Skerritt told SKNIS that the quality of the sporting facilities coupled with the beauty of the destination and the highly rated accommodations is a formula that is yielding successful results.“It’s good news because it is one of the things that this government has been striving to do [by] building a sports tourism infrastructure and getting into the market in a serious way,” he said. “The results are coming. The CARIFTA Games is another perfect activity to show that this country is ready to take on significant events, as we showed so excellently for the Cricket World Cup exactly one year before.”
The Minister explained that there was a high demand from teams wishing to come to St. Kitts and Nevis.
“Right now we have something like four or five groups trying to come here in March including one team from India to do some preseason training,” Minister Skerritt revealed. He confirmed that the Marylebone Cricket Club, who visited last January, will be returning for two weeks in 2008.
According to sportbusiness.com, sports tourism is a multi-billion dollar business, and is one of the fastest growing areas of the $4.5 trillion global travel and tourism industry. By 2011, travel and tourism is expected to be more than 10 percent of the global gross domestic product.