Sports tourism: why do sports in Salou

Salou. Costa Dorada. 21 January 2023. Saying Salou is saying sport. Why? Because Salou has an enviable sports infrastructure with almost 50 facilities, which makes it much easier to practice sports in the municipality. This is also a strategic commitment by the City Council to position Salou as a benchmark in sports tourism on the Costa Dorada.

Not in vain, Salou has the tourist certifications of Sports Tourism, Bicycle Tourism and Golf, and is already working to obtain the certification in paddle tennis and tennis.

In addition, the Salou City Council has an ambitious project to build a Sports City "of 40 hectares, which will have the capacity to house a stadium with an athletics track, playing fields, tennis and paddle tennis courts, a sports center with an Olympic-sized swimming pool and Gym; and a building for sports medicine, among other training services”, as explained by the mayor of Salou, Pere Granados, during the presentation of the Salou 2023 Sports Calendar in Madrid, within the framework of the Fitur tourism fair.

This 2023 Sports Calendar includes a total of 19 competitions and sports activities that will take place from January to December in Salou, thanks to the infrastructure and facilities that the municipality already has. Nothing more and nothing less than:

• 3 golf courses
• 15 soccer fields
• 9 clay tennis courts
• 14 paddle courts
• 3 sports halls
• 1 mountain bike circuit
• 1 nautical beach base
• 1 marina
• 25 beaches and coves
• 9 km of coastline
• More than 2,000 km of roads for cyclists
• 20,000 m2 of congress palace

With all this display, the numbers sing. According to the Salou Tourist Board, more than 180,000 annual visitors have a sports motivation when choosing this destination. This translates into more than 400,000 overnight stays linked to sport. In Salou, more than 200 sports tourism actions are organized every year and 95% of visitors have this motivation, I would repeat.

The objective is to increase these figures and take advantage of the stimulus of sports tourism to diversify and increase the tourist offer, deseasonalize and lengthen the tourist season, and thus contribute to the economic and social improvement of all the people who live and work in Salou.

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