TORONTO — As the Stanley Cup finals play out this week in Edmonton and Florida, have you connected with any hockey-obsessed clients?

Hang on to them – they could well be the starting point for your new niche in sports travel.

Sports travel isn’t new by any means. For decades sports fans have been hitting the road to see their favourite team play in a different city.

But in the strange way that trends work, suddenly after all this time, sports travel is breaking through and capturing the attention of the industry at large.

You only had to listen to the pitches from delegates at Brand USA’s Canada Connect last week to get a sense of the growing popularity. From Minnesota, to Denver, to Los Angeles, there were many mentions of thriving sports scenes with plenty of professional league teams.

“Sports tourism is huge, and we have all the teams,” said Crystal Atkinson, Global Tourism Development Manager for the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Bureau, at Brand USA’s Canada Connect event in Toronto.

In Arizona, “it’s a rapidly rising market,” said Laura Nestenau, Account Director, Arizona Office of Tourism Canada. “It’s a growing audience and we’re trying to see how we can get into that niche and get more Canadians into that market.”

It makes sense that in these days of bucket-list travel, more and more sports enthusiasts are elevating their fandom with travel.

They’re treating themselves to customized air, hotel and sightseeing packages featuring a game or two with their favourite teams – and enjoying the trip of a lifetime while they’re at it.

8 OUT OF 10 SPORTS FANS PLANNING MORE TRIPS

Tim Macdonell knows all about the rising popularity of sports travel. He’s definitely along for the ride.

Based in Ontario, he started Elite Sports Tours in 2008 “as an avid sports fan who would travel with friends to different sporting events in Canada and the U.S.,” as Macdonell tells Travelweek. “I was always the one buying a block of tickets to an event and rounding up the troops to go on an epic adventure to a new destination.”

He cites the latest industry intel from Sports Events & Tourism Association’s State of the Industry Report, showing that fans typically embark on three sports-related trips annually. Eight out of 10 of these enthusiasts plan to maintain or increase their travel frequency in the coming year, he adds.

Also from the report is this staggering stat: in 2023, sports-related travel had a direct economic impact of US$52.2 billion – and that’s just in the U.S. (and up from $45 billion in 2019). Over 200 million travellers contributed to this surge, resulting in more than 73 million room nights.

Asked about the top three sports leagues clients request from Elite Sports Tours, Macdonell checks them off in order: NFL, MLB and NHL.

“The most popular trip for Canadians is the NFL and we see a lot of clients book one big football trip a year to a new city to cross another stadium off their bucket list,” says Macdonell. “I would attribute that to the fact that the NFL is arguably the most popular sport in North America and Canada doesn’t have any teams locally. So planning a yearly trip to see their team in a different city is a priority for Canadians.”

Baseball and hockey take second and third spot for the company. “With the MLB having 162 regular season games and being the main sport running throughout the summer months, Canadians are often planning trips to see the Toronto Blue Jays south of the border. For hockey, you see fans trying to leave the cold and get value by booking a hockey trip to a warmer climate where they can often get packages for cheaper than in local Canadian markets – and they can make a vacation out of it.”

Macdonell says he’s always been a “big advocate of building a brand and engaging with our clients to build a community of sports fans who could trust a strong Canadian company with their dream sports trips as the industry evolved.”

While the company is all about the latest technology, Macdonell says the personal touch is also key. That’s something travel advisors know very well.

“We put a strong emphasis on the knowledge our team has when assisting clients who are more often than not planning a sports trip to see their favourite team but don’t have any familiarity with the city or where to begin. The fear of spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on a trip to a city they have no experience on their own can be daunting,” he says.

Asked about booking trends, he says Elite Sports Tours is seeing more and more sports fans doubling up by booking football trips early in the season, and then pairing it with a hockey or basketball game once those schedules come out. Not only does it enrich the experience, it can be more wallet-friendly too. “We’re seeing an increase in multi-city and multi-sport packages. Clients are looking for more value and many of the cities have multiple sports teams. They figure, if I’m going to travel all that way to a particular city to see a football game and the hockey team is playing the night before, I can cross off two venues on one trip.”

TIPS FOR TRAVEL ADVISORS

Travel advisors who book with Elite Sports Tours can make it worth their while by either charging a flat fee, or building in a margin.

We asked Macdonell what travel agents should know about selling sports travel. Does he have any tips, or words of wisdom?

“Sports fans are a different breed of travellers,” he says. “They have an emotional attachment to the players, teams, stadiums and cities, an attachment that’s been there since they were a kid. I would compare it to kids dreaming of going to Walt Disney World. As they get older, the sports fan has built an emotional connection with a team.”

He adds that sometimes that attachment is built from cheering on the team with their parents growing up, and it becomes a part of their identity. “It’s not just booking a trip to New York, it’s going to ‘the Mecca’ – Madison Square Garden ­– where so many historic events have taken place. There is a ton of history and emotional connection for sports fans that go way deeper than just planning a vacation.”

With that in mind, travel advisors would do well to apply the same due diligence and dedication that they would bring to any dream trip for a client. Says Macdonell: “In most cases, you are selling an experience that clients have built up over years and have high expectations for. It’s more than just a game. It’s a memory they will have for the rest of their life.”

This article appears in the June 13, 2024 edition of Travelweek; click here. Watch for more updates from Elite Sports Tours in Travelweek this summer.