On the non-public invitation of Mr. Kamil Bortniczuk, Minister of Sport and Tourism of Poland, FISU Performing President Leonz Eder and FISU Secretary Basic/CEO Eric Saintrond had been panelists within the second European Congress of Sport and Tourism 2023 held in Zakopane. FISU Polish Vice-President Marian Dymalski additionally attended the Convention.
Leonz Eder took half within the dialogue about “Group of nice sporting occasions as an impulse for improvement – how nice sporting occasions have an effect on social and financial improvement”, whereas Éric Saintrond intervened in “Sports activities diplomacy – sport as an space of worldwide diplomacy”. Each panel discussions had been broadcasted dwell on Polish Nationwide TV.
Like the opposite 4 panelists, Eder highlighted the relevance of sport in tourism and talked about that FISU had been finishing up affect research for a very long time to verify and validate the completely different advantages that sport occasions deliver to a metropolis, a area and in addition a rustic.
He highlighted subjects such because the financial affect, the enchantment of the vacation spot, the infrastructure improvement and in addition the cultural and academic exchanges which go together with huge sport occasions.
“Moreover the group engagement and efficient promotion and advertising and marketing work, a vacationer vacation spot might seem extra regularly on the worldwide map, if town or the area it’s related to repeatedly bids for worldwide occasions,” Leonz Eder stated.
Zakopane hosted two Winter Universiades, in 1993 and 2001.
“With the legacy of those main occasions and lately upgraded or newly constructed excellent amenities, Zakopane could be once more an excellent host for the FISU World College Winter Video games, possibly along with its neighbour (nation) Slovakia,” he added.
Like the opposite audio system, Leonz Eder praised Poland’s nice expertise as a bunch for single and multisport occasions each in winter and summer season.
“This mixed with the Polish hospitality explains why many federations together with FISU could be blissful to return to this nation for his or her occasions,” he stated.
In Éric Saintrond’s panel, the dialogue addressed the problem of the affect of politics in sport. It coated the participation of Russia in worldwide sports activities occasions and Saintrond defined FISU’s place, which follows the choices of the Worldwide Sports activities Federations.
He talked about the assistance offered by FISU to Ukrainian athletes to allow them to take part in FISU occasions. “And I hope that the scholars from Russia will return to FISU competitions as soon as the warfare is over,” he stated.
Panelists additionally talked about “sport washing”. “Now we have to create a win win state of affairs between the international locations that need to spend money on sport occasions to wash their picture and the game our bodies that want hosts to prepare their occasions. And we additionally have to bear in mind that these occasions should respect the “sport for local weather change” UN decision,” Éric Saintrond stated.