Eritrea: Favorable Country For Sports Tourism
Lots of existing factors enable Eritrea to host national, regional as well as international sports events and exist as a sports tourism site. Here are some of the many factors.
1. The greatest asset Eritrea owns, in the viewpoint and status quo of our world is the peace and stability that prevails in it. Eritrea is a nation where athletes or guests can move about in with no feeling of fear or insecurity. Thus, this makes Eritrea a favorable place for conducting different sporting events.
2. Another asset of Eritrea is that it owns hospitable and cultured people that has the love and admiration of sports.
3. The history of modern sporting events has relatively spanned longer in Eritrea compared to nations of our region. For this reason, sport has become a culture in Eritrea. Not only this, but Eritrea has got lots of its citizens active in different sports, and lots of experts capable of administrating and organizing sports events.
4. It is possible to witness spellbinding sights in Eritrea, and experience different climates only after travelling few hours. This makes Eritrea a possible location for conducting sports tournaments such as cross-country athletics, cycling, motor bikes and car racing and attractive and challenging sports competitions.
5. The Government of Eritrea is making huge investment to lay an infrastructure spearheading for economic and social development. As a result, roads that were reduced to rubbles during the struggle for independence have been renewed and expanded on top of the new ones paved. All these and the others that are in the process of being constructed are therefore capable of contributing towards the goal of Eritrea becoming a sports tourism site.
6. Eritrea has also many historical sites and ancient relics, making it attractive to visiting tourists. The buildings and pieces of architecture that date back to the Turkish era make Eritrea an attractive sight-seeing place for visiting athletes and spectators.
The Tour of Eritrea, 2009 has highlighted some of the above mentioned factors. However, much needs to be accomplished to make Eritrea a sports tourist attraction. Some degree of innovation and creativity are required on top of an active public relations work in order to fully exploit the resources we have to the use of our people. On this occasion, it is worth reminding the concerned government institutions and the society to exert utmost endeavors to this respect.
Also, sport plays a great role in bringing together sections of society, forging strong nationalism and collective outlook on the youth on top of being a means of interaction with other societies and highlighting identity of the people and nation and bringing about international recognition.
Although one can not possibly claim at this stage that sports and sporting events have reached their peak at this time in Eritrea, however, one can not ignore the colorful victories and feats being scored by Eritrean athletes and cyclists in international events. These above mentioned facts point towards the bright future our youth are heading and their reserved capacity, and serve as a reminder for all of us to work harder to reach the sought after goals.
At this point in time, Eritrea is a nation laying foundations for building developed society by selecting the best of cultures from our forefathers and from the international arena. Sports are one of the impartial parts of civilization and national cultures. The Government of Eritrea, fully grasping this fact, with all the national priorities has been working to the level of its capacity so that sports activity develop as part of the national development drives. And generally, all the development endeavors that has been underway lays firm groundwork for sports and sports events.
It is also understandable that investment being made in Eritrean sports will increase in no time as we develop further. So far with the small amount of investment made on sports Eritrea has gained international attraction. Hence, it is evident that as we become developed and increase our investment, Eritrea will achieve new higher grounds with its feats.