Rethinking Sport Tourism Events in a Post-Covid-19 South Africa

Abstract

Sport tourism and its related events have been identified as a unique niche product and South Africa is considered globally as a leading sport event tourism destination. Despite the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the sector, it is recognised for its resilience and ability to overcome crises thereby creating employment and assisting economies to recover. For this recovery to effectively take place, recovery strategies, frameworks and policies are now a necessity for the sustainability of South Africa as a sport event tourism destination. The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical review of existing published and unpublished literature sources and policy documents in order to identify the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on sport event tourism in South Africa and to propose directions for recovery strategies going forward, as well as recommendations for future research areas. In doing so, the current paper has found that through adequate recovery policies, strategies and frameworks, sport event tourism in South Africa can effectively be used as a post pandemic tool for urban regeneration, new business opportunities and a range of positive social impacts for host communities. As the sub sector begins to reopen, recovery strategies that include considerations of risk communication, community engagement, risk mitigation and the hosting of hybrid events are essential for its sustainability. For the effective implementation hereof, additional research is needed in the fields of crises in sport event tourism, the use of technology in the sub sector, as well as collaboration in small scale sport event tourism.