BARCELONA, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Sports tourism is an opportunity to provide quality jobs for a much longer period of the year and provides more indirect earnings than traditional beach tourism, according to the experts who spoke to Xinhua at the World Sports Tourism Congress.

The Congress was inaugurated on Thursday in the popular beach resort of Lloret de Mar (north-east Spain) with the aim of analyzing the relationship between sports tourism and sustainable and inclusive development.

The event, which was jointly organized by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the Catalan regional government (Generalitat de Catalunya), attracted 62 speakers from all over the world for a series of debates and discussions on topics as diverse as developing stadiums, diversity and inclusion and public-private tourism strategies.

A recent study published by Allied Market Research showed that even in 2020, sports tourism (which includes people who both practice sport, or spend money to watch sporting events) generated over 323,420 million US dollars of income, with that figure predicted to grow to 1,803,704 million dollars by 2030.

And there is one big advantage about sports tourists: "They spend money and come at times of the year when it is very interesting for us here in Catalonia," Narcis Ferrer I Ferrer, the Director General of the Catalan Tourism Agency told Xinhua.

He explained that there are "destinations" that are "very seasonal" and "sports tourism is at times of the year that helps us get around that," as it continues at a time when people don't come for beach holidays.

Ferrer I Ferrer also pointed out that people who travel to either practice or watch sport don't spend 24 hours a day doing that. "You can't do much more than 5 hours of sport a day and that means there are 19 hours more to consume culture, gastronomy and other things," he explained.

"It extends the tourism season and gives continuity to our destinations and that is important as it generates quality jobs, money for businesses and dynamism in areas that otherwise would not have it," he said, adding that in 2019 Catalonia received around 800 million euros from sporting tourism. Enditem

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