Should Malta invest in and promote field hockey tours towards the British market?

Abstract

This study analyses whether Malta should invest in field hockey tours towards the British market in order to help the sport grow on a local level as an emerging niche market within Sports Tourism. It includes a wide range of people coming from different areas and countries ranging from the President of Sports of Canterbury Christ Church University, UK to the General Secretary of the Malta Hockey Association with regard to the qualitative data gathered. Quantitative data was also used and, the selected participants were from two categories, namely; those that play field hockey at University and those that have attended a field hockey tour to Malta in recent years. With regard to the field hockey infrastructure in Malta one can state that unfortunately it is rather poor and would require a lot of investment however the financial resources and manpower are lacking in this area, primarily because hockey in Malta is an amateur sport. This having been said there is potential for the sport to grow and develop within the Island as it has done in several other countries. The work currently being done by the Malta Hockey Association is solely to keep the sport alive and therefore, one cannot focus on investing in other possibilities before the ground work is complete. This groundwork is essentially, the promotion of the sport on a local basis. Once this is done, then the association can move forward and explore different markets. The current facilities available are not of the highest standard and there have been several complaints from visiting teams however without the assistance of local organisation such as Sport Malta and foreign investors, it would be rather difficult to obtain the required financial resources to invest in the sport. Field hockey tours are a big market in the UK and therefore Malta could look to exploit this as it has a number of strengths that would attract this niche market.