Sports Tourism in Pakistan: The Status QUO, Possibilities and Challenges

Huang Liang; Dr. Yasmeen Iqbal; Mufeez Alam

Huang Liang Ph.d Scholar, department of Sports Sciences and Physical Education, University of Lahore, Pakistan and Associate Professor, department of Physical Education, Chengdu University, China.
Dr. Yasmeen Iqbal Head of Department Sports sciences and Physical Education University of Lahore, Pakistan.
Mufeez Alam Senior Lecturer, Department of Sports Science and physical education, university of Lahore, Pakistan.

Keywords: Sports’ tourism; tourism; poverty reduction; sports facilities; sports events

Abstract

>Convergence of tourism and sports is increasingly becoming popular due to its capacity to generate a huge amount of foreign exchange for the country. However, Sports tourism open the door to lead up with healthy gesture for the Athletes of both countries. A country can also recognize with sports tourist if its tourism industry is flourishing. Pakistan tourism industry is in limbo for quite some time. This exploratory study is an attempt to identify challenges and prospects of this important niche of sports’ tourism. Using qualitative approach, semi-structure interviews were conducted with the officials of departments/ministries of provisional and federal government and players who represented Pakistan at international events, the study identified the following bottlenecks that significantly affect the flourishing of sports’ tourism, pessimistic image of the country, no comprehensive policy regarding tourism in general and sports’ tourism in particular, lack of sports culture in the country, low priority for tourism in general and sports’ tourism in particular and political issues with neighbors. The study designed for an elaborate policy encompassing every aspect of sports tourism and implementing the policy in true spirit.