Beach games new frontier in Kenyan sports tourism

Kenya is, arguably, predominantly known for only two things -- sports and tourist attractions of wildlife and pristine beaches.

Sports and tourism are therefore complementary, with sports tourism being a fast-growing attraction across the world, and which Kenya is still trying to build.

Sports can be an amateur, leisure or professional activity, and often involves travelling to a different destination to play or compete, whilst sports tourism is travelling from one region, country or state, to another in order to watch a sports competition or participate in one.

This is often combined with social and cultural activities of the are visited.

Kenya has been offering sports tourism in such events as the Safari Rally, Kenya Open Golf Championships, World Athletics events, road races and at a small scale, athletes coming to train in Kenya particularly in athletics.

Whether these have been successfully leveraged for economic and infrastructural development requires to be studied.

One particular tourist area that we have not explored in terms of sports tourism is the coastal beaches. Kenya has a long coastline of over 400 kilometres along the Indian Ocean, with white sandy beaches and beautiful coral reefs.

These make great venues for sports that require the beach, water sports including diving and sailing.

Vibrant and dynamic version

Beach games are a new sports product, being developed as a vibrant and dynamic version of respective elite sports.

The vibrancy of the beach, the festival-like feel of the coast and attraction to younger participants is anticipated to make beach games a highly attractive sport.

To this end, National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) has launched the Kenya Beach Games. The first edition of these games will be held in Kilifi County on March 18-19.

Interestingly, Kilifi has 260km of beach front. The games will feature 15 sporting events.

The same version of the games will be organised in the Lake Victoria region at a later date, to promote sports as well as tourism in the region.

The games will infuse modern sports with traditional and local sports.

The local sports will greatly promote the cultural of the people and preserve the sports heritage of the communities.

Sustainability and accessibility are at the heart of the beach games, with an emphasis placed on minimizing any negative environmental impact by using existing and temporary infrastructure.

The games ensure accessibility for locals as fans, participants, and aim to support economic activities.

Everyone wants the dream beach look. Hit the gym now. It’s time for our beach games!

Mutuku is the Secretary General at the National Olympic Committee of Kenya. [email protected]