{"id":71484,"date":"2026-07-28T12:22:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T08:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/?p=71484"},"modified":"2026-07-28T12:22:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T08:22:23","slug":"beyond-the-event-sports-tourism-surge-creates-new-opportunities-for-banks-travel-brands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/beyond-the-event-sports-tourism-surge-creates-new-opportunities-for-banks-travel-brands\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond The Event: Sports Tourism Surge Creates New Opportunities For Banks & Travel Brands"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Middle East continues to establish itself as one of the world’s fastest-growing destinations for major sporting events, new research from Priority Pass reveals that passion-led travel is an important driver of customer loyalty and payment card choice among travellers.<\/p>\n

The findings show that sport is no longer simply influencing where people travel. It is shaping how they travel, the experiences they seek, and the travel benefits they value. Priority Pass research found that 79% of travellers with travel benefits say their sports and wellness interests have influenced their choice of payment card, highlighting a growing opportunity for banks, loyalty providers and travel brands to connect with customers through experience-led travel.<\/p>\n

The trend is particularly relevant across the GCC, where significant investment in sports tourism is accelerating the region’s position as a global hub for major sporting events. From Formula 1 in Abu Dhabi and international sporting events across the UAE<\/a>, to Saudi Arabia’s rapidly expanding sports calendar and major regional tournaments hosted across Bahrain and Qatar, the region is attracting increasing numbers of travellers whose journeys are shaped by live sport and experience-led itineraries. This trend is creating opportunities for cross-border travel, longer stays and higher traveller spend as visitors combine major sporting events with leisure, wellness and cultural experiences across multiple destinations.<\/p>\n

Sport is influencing loyalty decisions and spending behaviour<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

Priority Pass research shows football remains the world’s leading travel-driving sport, with fandom strongest across EMEA (61%), followed by APAC and the Americas (both 54%). Almost half (46%) of sports travellers say sport motivates them to explore additional destinations, rising to 49% among Millennials and Gen Z.<\/p>\n

The trend highlights how passions are increasingly influencing consumer behaviour beyond the trip itself. For banks, card issuers and loyalty providers, sport and wellness interests are becoming an important consideration in payment card preference, everyday spending decisions and long-term loyalty.<\/p>\n

Travel benefits are becoming loyalty drivers<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

As travellers invest more in experience-led journeys, the benefits attached to payment cards and loyalty programmes are playing a larger role in daily purchasing decisions. Airport lounge access, travel experiences, wellness services and digital travel tools are increasingly valued by travellers seeking convenience, comfort and flexibility throughout their journey.<\/p>\n

For financial services providers and loyalty programmes, travel benefits are evolving from supplementary perks into meaningful drivers of card acquisition, usage and loyalty. By aligning benefits with the experiences travellers actively seek, brands have an opportunity to influence everyday spending decisions while building deeper, long-term customer relationships.<\/p>\n

Christopher Evans, CEO at Collinson International<\/b><\/strong>, said: “Sport inspires people to travel in a way few other experiences can. As destinations across the Middle East continue investing in world-class sporting events, we’re seeing more travellers build entire journeys around these moments, often combining multiple destinations and experiences in a single trip. For brands, this presents a significant opportunity to build deeper customer loyalty by delivering meaningful travel benefits that support the entire journey.<\/i><\/em>”<\/p>\n

The findings demonstrate that as sports tourism grows across the GCC, travel benefits are increasingly influencing how travellers choose, use and remain loyal to payment cards and loyalty programmes. For brands, delivering seamless travel experiences throughout the journey presents a significant opportunity to drive engagement, differentiation and long-term customer loyalty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the Middle East continues to establish itself as one of the world’s fastest-growing destinations for major sporting events, new research from Priority Pass reveals that passion-led travel is an important driver of customer loyalty and payment card choice among travellers. The findings show that sport is no longer simply influencing where people travel. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":71485,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","animate-on-scroll"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71484"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71487,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71484\/revisions\/71487"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dubaicityguide.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}