Using Sports to Engage With Your Visitors and Community

We partnered with trusted research firms Cimarron Global and Longwoods International to conduct an in-depth study into how sporting events are perceived by destinations’ local residents. This study examines the impact of sports tourism and builds on Miles Partnership’s previous work examining how destination organizations can engage successfully with their local residents and communities. This work has included “Time for DMOcracy,” a major international study defining community engagement best practices for tourism, led by Miles Partnership and Group NAO with a range of industry and association partners. 

Our latest collaborative research report, the “2025 Resident Sentiment Towards Sporting Events National Benchmark Study,” highlights that sporting events are generally seen as highly positive by local residents. Over eight out of ten local residents in this US study of 4,000 local residents think “sporting events are good for my community.” 

This sentiment is more positive than how U.S. residents think about tourism more generally. For example, only around half of US residents agree that their “quality of life has improved because of tourism,” according to the North American “Resident Sentiment Towards Tourism” study by Longwoods International.

The economic benefits of sporting events are also clearer to local residents than the benefits of tourism in general. Indeed, 80-90% of local residents in this recent study agreed that sporting events “benefit the local economy.” 

By comparison, the wider Longwoods study found that only around half of U.S. residents agreed that “tourism is important to my local community” or that “tourism attracts new businesses to my local area.” 

Despite the overall positive view of sporting events among U.S. residents, there are some slightly more negative sentiments that may need to be managed for optimal community engagement, including resident concerns that sporting events may cause crowding and congestion. For example, between 39% to 55% of residents in the study agreed that various types of sporting events “attract too many visitors, making it difficult for residents to enjoy local restaurants and businesses.” 

This highlights the importance of engaging with local residents to plan the development, management and marketing of events that attract visitors, including sporting events. This consultation, critical to building local community trust and support for tourism and related visitor events, has often been missing in the past. For example, Longwood’s wider research of North American sentiment towards tourism shows that just a third or less of U.S. and Canadian residents agree with the statement, “residents are consulted when major tourism development takes place in this area.”

When destinations consult local residents about planning sporting events, it’s likely engagement will be positive and productive. As we noted earlier, sporting events start typically with strong support from local residents. And more easily than other events, sporting tournaments can demonstrate widely shared benefits to local businesses, sporting groups and the wider community. 

Sporting tournaments that are also signature local events offer particularly widely shared benefits. Signature local events are events hosted within a destination that has a deep connection to the event. These can be concert series, art walks, food festivals or any other type of event, including sports games and tournaments. Miles Partnership took a close look at “Signature Local Events” in 2024, highlighting how these events benefit both a destination’s tourism economy and its local community.

For example, the Junior College World Series is one example of a smaller but outstanding signature local sporting event. The tournament arrived in Grand Junction, Colorado in its second year, 1959, and has never left. After 66 years, it is firmly at home on the Western slope of the Rockies, contracted through to at least 2035. 

Part of what makes this tournament so beneficial for the community is its timing (during the shoulder season) and its perfect size. It attracts a few thousand athletes and their family and friends each year and generates an estimated $3 million in incremental spending without overtaxing the city’s infrastructure. After seven decades of the event, the cumulative economic returns have been significant. With tax revenue in the hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, the event has generated tens of millions of tax revenue for the destination since it moved to Grand Junction.

The long-term success of this event shows that you don’t have to be an enormous destination to benefit from sports tourism. The Junior College World Series also highlights the wider legacy benefits that sporting tournaments can bring, fostering baseball and sport participation in the Grand Junction community, including a special program for young athletes with special needs. 

Sporting events offer a positive and productive opportunity to demonstrate the value of tourism in the community. Signature local sporting events, like the Junior College World Series in Grand Junction, are a particularly impactful type of events for destinations. These sporting events are generally seen as highly positive by local residents and help destination organizations build stronger connections with the community and communicate the value of tourism and the role of their organization more broadly. Whether it is a sporting event, a business conference or a leisure visitor, every destination needs a welcoming and positive community for tourism to thrive and prosper. 

More information and resources: 

• “Resident Sentiment Towards Sporting Events National Benchmark Study,” 2025 —Miles Partnership, Cimarron Global and Longwoods International
• “Time for DMOcracy” 2022-2023—Miles Partnership, Group NAO and partners.