'A legitimate and potent force' for Scottish tourism

University of Abertay, Press Release, 5 November 2003

Sport could become the biggest driver for tourism growth in the coming years and decades – and Scotland is in an ideal position to benefit.

That was the message spelled out by Professor Terry Stevens, one of the world’s leading commentators on the global tourism industry, in a lecture held to mark his appointment as Visiting Professor at the University of Abertay Dundee (Wednesday 5 November 2003).

As one of Scotland’s largest industries, tourism employs 193,000 people, 8.7% of the workforce, and injects £4 billion annually into the Scottish economy. Now, sports tourism is regarded by many as the most important sector in the industry – with important implications for the way that tourism is planned, organised and marketed.

In his lecture, “Tourism and sport: The essential partnership”, Professor Stevens examined the potential economic contribution of sports tourism, and issued a stark warning that the country can no longer rely on the declining markets of golf and winter sports.

Professor Stevens said: “The Sports Tourism International Council has recently developed a ‘Sports Tourism Index’ which has quantified the value of sports tourism as being the equivalent of some 32% of global tourism outputs or approximately $2.3 trillion.

“In Scotland, the seven main sports tourism markets regularly monitored by VisitScotland annually contribute approximately £700 million to the Scottish economy each year or 16% of the total income from all tourism activity and 12% of all trips.”

Although paying tribute to the long history of golf tourism in Scotland, Professor Stevens highlighted the fact that: “Scotland has over 500 golf courses, however, it is surprising and perhaps a little ironic that here, the recognised ‘home of golf’, only 2% of all courses are of world class or excellent status.

“In some ways this is reflected in Scotland’s relative decline in popularity as a golfing destination over the past ten years, due to the enormous growth in competition and the development of new golfing destinations around the world.

Professor Stevens also examined the decline of Scotland’s winter snow-sports market. “Cairngorm, one of Scotland's five ski centres, has seen its average number of skiers decrease from an average of 320,000 between 1988 and 1990 to 114,000 between 1996 and 2000.This is primarily due to the inconsistency and increasingly low volumes of snow in recent years together with the ease of access to competitor destinations.”

“In short, it is time to look beyond the bunker and to harness the potential of other sports to help revitalise Scotland’s tourism industry.”

Turning to the future, Professor Stevens continued: “Scotland is one of the few destinations where sports tourism has a long tradition and where the national tourism organisation, VisitScotland, recognises the value of this ‘essential partnership’. There is an important opportunity, therefore, to broaden the range of sporting activities taken seriously by the tourism industry in order to grow Scotland’s competitive advantage and its tourism economy.

“As one example, the UK Government and the Scottish Parliament, together with their various agencies, are promoting walking for health, exercise in the outdoors and the encouragement of holidays for sport and health. VisitScotland’s new tourism strategy recognises the importance of these trends especially the growth of ‘soft adventure’ alongside the more active, extreme and traditional outdoor sports.

“Already it is estimated that holidays from the UK market where walking is the main purpose of a holiday in Scotland, accounts for 300,000 trips (2 million bed nights) and £68 million expenditure, whilst 16 million leisure trips in Scotland involve some form of recreational walking.

“Scotland is particularly well placed to capitalise upon this broad palette of opportunity with its accessible mountains, varied coast and good access … building upon those indigenous sports that help define the sense of place and reflect the spirit and culture of the country.”

Professor Stevens has had over 25 years experience in the leisure and tourism industry. During that time he has worked in both the public and private sectors in the planning, development and management of tourism projects. His work has involved him in projects in 25 countries including, most recently, Saudi Arabia where he is advising the Supreme Commission for Tourism.

In addition to his teaching and consultancy duties, his appointment to the Dundee Business School at the University of Abertay Dundee will contribute to the advancement of the University’s research into tourism development.

Welcoming his appointment, Professor Nicholas Terry, Head of the Dundee Business School, said: “Professor Stevens brings to the University a wealth of knowledge and experience of the tourism industry. This is an increasingly important sector of the Scottish economy, as we have recognized at Abertay with the introduction of industry specific courses, and I look forward to the invaluable contribution to teaching, research, and consultancy that Professor Stevens will make to the University.”