Sports Tourism and political ole talk

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The point being made here is that we had no coordination of these activities such that we could have benefited from a more systematic approach to organising these activities to encourage sports tourism, if that is where we really do wish to go.

Unfortunately what happens here is a set of disparate activities with no coordination such that one merely hopes that the other does not organise an activity or set of activities that lead to serious clashes where neither emerges successful. It is merely by chance that there are not more m
ajor clashes.

We allow our Easter, Whitsuntide and Independence  holidays to chance in so far as no one takes responsibility for organising any coordinated set of sporting activities that can constitute the basis of a developing sports tourism calendar.

Political Ole Talk

Politicians love to talk. They seem committed to hearing themselves utter nice-sounding platitudes that are not necessarily reflected in their actions. The much-vaunted political commitment to sport development in St Vincent and the Grenadines is a myth. It is unreal. It does not exist.

The stadium was a political platform promise to the youths of this country in 2000/1. It is still on the books as far from realisation as it has ever been. The setback that this has posed to the development of athletics and football does not seem to embarrass the political authorities here, neither does the loss of potential revenue that could easily have come through the hosting of regional and international activities by the two sports at this venue.

The example of tennis is one to examine closely. Since the facility has been constructed with assistance from the Taiwanese Government we have had a slew of regional and international tournaments bringing visitors here on a regular basis. The highlight has been our hosting of the BNP Paribas American Zone Group Four in the Davis Cup some years ago and the more recent junior competition. These do not even constitute the tip of the iceberg in so far as the sports tourism potential is concerned.