India has immense potential for Sports Tourism but needs infrastructure development and proper marketing for its promotion, experts said today.
At a roundtable meeting on ‘Sports Tourism in India: The Country is Game!’, sportspersons and administrators said a systematic approach involving the government and sports bodies in the country was required to realise the potential.
Ace golfer and thrice Asian Tour winner Gaurav Ghei rued limited participation of the people in the game and said golf courses should be thrown open to the public.
“India is a popular golf destination. It’s becoming one of the greatest sports in India and golf is a multi-billion industry. However, there is an immense need to improve the infrastructure at golf courses. It is quite unreasonable for a golfer to pay for playing the sport,” he said.
“Golf courses in India are open for only members, bankers or selected group of people. For a non-member it becomes very expensive and difficult to pay through his pocket. In India, we must have tourism friendly golf courses. Here land is very expensive and it is not easy to get open spaces for golf courses. To run the golf industry in India, it is very important to introduce online booking facility. The overall golfing experience should be made much more enjoyable.”
"India is one of the regions in the world that is slowly catching up with the fad of sports tourism. With adequate support from relevant authorities, sports tourism in India is indeed gaining immense prominence and popularity," said Subhash Goyal, president of Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO).
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