Tulum Targets Sports Tourism With 350-Athlete Event and 4.7 Million Peso Boost

Tulum, Quintana Roo — More than 350 athletes will take part in Freedom Tulum, a soccer, volleyball and yoga gathering set for Oct. 2-4 at the town’s sports complex, as local officials look to open a new visitor market through a national sports tourism strategy.

The event is part of the Tulum Renace project and the National Sports Tourism Strategy. José Luis Sosa, national president of the Mexican Council for Sports Tourism, said organizers expect the gathering to generate close to 4.7 million pesos in economic activity.

Sosa said one of the event’s objectives is to promote sports spaces for women under an inclusion model, with activities free of violence.

Turning competitions into tourism products

The strategy aims to connect sports service providers with hotels, transportation companies and other tourism businesses to build packages that combine competitions and activities with lodging, transfers and experiences at the destination.

Sosa said the goal is for those products to be marketed later in national and international markets, so that sporting events also drive demand for tourism services and broaden the offerings Tulum currently provides to visitors.

The presentation was attended by Bernardo Cueto Riestra, Quintana Roo’s tourism secretary; Haydee Hernández Pastrana, general director of tourism for Tulum; and Laura Villordo López, president of the Euforia movement.

The participation and economic impact figures for Freedom Tulum are the forecasts presented by organizers and will need to be compared with the results recorded once the event concludes.