Sports tourism events and socio-economic well-being of the host communities: Motivations and benefits from an emerging destination

Travel and tourism industry has been considered as a major catalyst for local community development. As an alternative way of involving the host community in tourism activities directly, sports tourism aims to enable the hosts to earn income. Host community is an important stakeholder in tourism, their wellbeing is directly proportional to sustainable tourism. Nairobi city has hosted several sports tourism events for decades, but little has been documented on how such events promote the socio-economic wellbeing of the host community. This research sought to put sports tourism events into limelight by looking at the perceived motivational factors behind hosting of sports tourism events and to assess the socio-economic benefits of hosting sports tourism events. A cross-sectional research design was used in the study with a total of 404 respondents. Questionnaires and interviews were used to collect data from informants in three stadia. Descriptive, thematic analysis and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. The major motivating factors for hosting sports tourism event were good infrastructure, expected benefits and availability of accommodation facilities. The main benefits of hosting sports tourism events were identified as employment opportunities and increased trade for local businesses. A number of recommendations were made.