Benefits of football tourism

The recent visits to Malta for pre-season training by the English Championship football squads of Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday, including an impressive number of accompanying supporters, have highlighted the importance of football tourism as a source of income for our country and a boost to Malta's economy.

Such football training camps in Malta generate plenty of business because the players and supporters obviously buy Maltese goods and services while residing in the Maltese islands. Furthermore, equally and even more importantly, is the amount of overseas publicity that results from such visits by these famous football teams that enjoy a large following.

In fact, I was surfing the internet and noted that the clubs' websites have given full details of the teams' visits to Malta, complete with colour pictures amply demonstrating the attractions of Malta's sun and sea. The positive ramifications do not stop there because the teams' supporters also have a number of unofficial websites and these too carried reports of the teams' visits to Malta.

One must also mention that the Malta Tourism Authority's sponsorship of Sheffield United is reaping handsome dividends because if one were to follow the online discussions by Sheffield United supporters, one would quickly note that these now have a soft spot for Malta as they view it as a source of income and support for their football club. It is obvious that a good number of them will be encouraged by all this to choose Malta as their holiday destination when weighing the options available to them.

Football training camps in Malta can be organised throughout most of the year. The winter break is another period of the year when Malta's warm climate is highly attractive to foreign football teams. One recalls the highly-successful visit of AC Milan a couple of years ago. The positive impact on Malta's tourism of such visits by world-famous football clubs with a worldwide following can hardly be over-estimated.

On a smaller scale, one can also mention the visits of many foreign football nursery teams who visit our islands with a sizable contingent, which usually includes several of the children's parents and other relatives. Coming from Birkirkara, I cannot but remember the huge successes of such initiatives as the famous Birkirkara FC Christmas tournaments when foreign nursery teams competed with local ones.

The best form of football tourism remains, of course, the success of our football teams in the international arena. In this area, a lot of work remains to be done although the quite encouraging results achieved this year in European competitions seem to indicate that the potential for limited successes is there if we go about exploiting it in the right manner. Our small size and limited human resources will always remain a handicap but other small countries have shown that, with goodwill and hard work, impressive results can be obtained.

When discussing football, I am also referring to women's football because such a sport today also cuts across the gender gap of many years ago. Women's football is blossoming in the Maltese islands and I believe that this female aspect of the game should also be exploited for its touristic aspects.

Tourism is a vital part of Malta's economy and we have to be innovative and imaginative in our approach to it because of the competition from other countries with much greater resources than we have. Today, everybody recognises the fact that tourism has to go far beyond the ages-old and traditional concept of an ordinary sightseeing holiday for the average tourist. Cultural tourism, agro-tourism, medical tourism, sports tourism, etc can all play a vital role in further developing our tourism industry.

Football tourism is, therefore, one of the many attractive options we can exploit to the benefit of our country's future.