Challenges and Opportunities to Sustainable Sport Tourism Events: Insights from an Urban Host City

Sports tourism is viewed as an ideal tool for supporting the livelihood of the host communities in developing countries. As an alternative way of involving the host community in tourism activities, sports tourism aims to enable the hosts to earn income from tourism. Sports tourism events have been hosted in the country for decades but still facing challenges that has hauled its growth process. This article will shade light on the challenges and opportunities of hosting sports tourism in Nairobi as a way of enhancing sustainable tourism development. A cross-sectional research design is used in the study, 404 respondents form the sample size of the study.  Questionnaires and interviews are used to collect data from informants in three stadia that frequently host   sports tourism events. Descriptive, thematic analysis and inferential statistics are used for data analysis. Findings indicate that major challenges facing the hosting of sports tourism event are; poor planning, policy issues and security. Results also show that the main opportunities for sports tourism events are boosting of domestic tourism, diversification of tourism products and marketing of host cities. Key recommendations are made to policy makers to craft policies that will spur sustainable sports tourism development. Key words Sports Tourism Events, Challenges, Opportunities, Sustainable, and community DOI: 10.7176/JTHS/55-06 Publication date: March 31 st 2021