January 19, 2012
How Global Sports Teams Can Encourage Tourism
Arsenal FC is one of the best football clubs in the world and more importantly they are known around the world from Nigeria to Taiwan. With well in excess of 300 million followers worldwide the Premier League is the most popular league anywhere in the world and when one of the big teams come to town you sure know about it. The idea of a preseason football tour is a chance for the players to meet their fans on the other side of the world who don't have the chance to travel to a game in the UK as well as a great opportunity to promote the club. Later this year Arsenal is planning a preseason tour of Nigeria, following in the footsteps of Portsmouth and Manchester United who previously travelled there in 2007. The reason why Nigeria is so excited about the prospect of Arsenal travelling to their nation is the fact that the country will receive much more publicity and exposure in the hope to gain more tourists visiting.
Africa is perhaps best known for the Tanzania safari and the South African safari but is less known for people travelling to Nigeria for tourism purposes. The Nigerian tourism minister believes that Nigeria has the largest Premier league fan base outside of the United Kingdom which is why Arsenal is travelling there. The aim of the tour on the part of the Nigerians is to show Arsenal how passionate supporters in their nation are in the hope they may make a return visit in the future. Although Nigeria's wildlife reserves aren't as busy or as famous as the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania, the trip by Arsenal will only stimulate tourism in the country.
With such a huge following worldwide, fans from all over won't want to miss the opportunity to see some of Arsenal's star players. In some cases people may take their holiday to Africa and spend a week in Nigeria following Arsenal and watching their games and then spend another week on the continent taking part in an Namibia safari. If the tour is to go ahead i think there is every chance people might see Nigeria in a new light and ultimately might think about a potential visit one day.
Filed under Whale Watching Tours by jenny