Boundary-breaking attractions

Sites of sporting interest can raise the game of tourism to extraordinary levels. Director of museums and airports Michael Ball talks about the International Cricket Hall of Fame under construction in Bowral, Australia

The late Australian batsman Sir Donald Bradman was the best cricketer of all time. His batting average of around 100 runs per game remains completely unassailable. “He was a freak”, says Michael Ball, Chairman of the Bradman Foundation, who operates the Bradman Museum one and a half hours south of Sydney.

Bradman Oval in Bowral, where “The Don” learned to play

During a visit to London for an Ashes Test in July 2009, Ball secured the Museum’s first Bradman match-used bat. This was used by Bradman in a 1934 first-class match to score 140 runs against Yorkshire, who managed to hold onto a draw. “The bat is half the weight and thickness of what is used now, so his record should really be double what it is,” Ball says. “And today, all cricket grounds have a rope around the inside so fielders don’t crash against the fence – the boundaries were up to 30m further away then.”

The Bradman Foundation is based in Bowral, where Bradman grew up. “He loved the picturesque Oval – then known as Glebe Park, now Bradman Oval – he gave us much of his memorabilia and his ashes are scattered at the Oval,” says Ball. “The museum was founded to promote the virtues and values of cricket, especially as expressed by Don Bradman. He wrote, thought and planned everything very intelligently. Don was very conscious that cricket was not simply a game of skill but should be played to enhance social interaction, fairness and partnership.”

The museum opened 20 years ago and rapidly became a major tourist attraction. In its early years, it was receiving 60 to 70 thousand visitors per year. “This was extremely important to the Southern Highlands, an area where the population is just 36,000.”

However, as those who remember him from his playing days lessened, the number of visitors began to decline. In recent times the Foundation was receiving around 25,000 visitors per year. Something had to be done to broaden Bowral’s tourist appeal.

Two years ago, the board of the Bradman Foundation decided that Bowral should become the home of the International Cricket Hall of Fame. “The ICHOF is dedicated to the history of the game and the records of all international cricketers from all countries from all eras.”

Creating the ICHOF is a major task. The federal government of Australia has provided AUD 7m to build the museum and develop its exhibits. “We will have bowlers bowling virtual balls, so visitors will understand the speed at which the balls move and the limited time they have to react to them,” says Ball.

Ball is expecting more tourists to visit Bowral than ever before when the ICHOF opens in late 2010. “We are expecting 80,000 per year. They will be both Australian and international.” While Ball does not expect many international tourists to travel to Australia just to visit the ICHOF, he sees it as a major additional incentive to sports tourism. “This will attract visitors to Australia as part of a broader package, including visits to the Melbourne and Sydney cricket grounds to visit test matches. It’s up to the marketing people to put packages like this together.”

Olympic attraction from Barcelona to London
As director of the Sydney Airports Corporation for the period leading up to the 2000 Summer Olympic Games, Ball has learned first hand about the impact that major sports events can have on tourism. “The aim is not just to get people to the Games and to rent hotel rooms, but to get them to visit other places,” he says. “There was an elevated level of visits to Australia after the Games, because of the huge interest in Australia that was generated. Film crews going to film the Games would also go out to film the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru and other sites of interest in the country.”

In the years before and after the Olympic Games, the attention of the whole world is focused on the host nation. “We saw that in Beijing and we are beginning to see it in London. We are learning what England is starting to do in terms of venues, accommodation, roads, buses and airports – all of those things that need to be done.”

The impact of a major sporting event should be long-lived. “It’s not just a shooting rocket that fades. It’s the culmination of years of planning that breeds employment, facilities, and the vast panoply of needs,” says Ball.

According to former IOC marketing director Michael Payne, the 1984 Games set the benchmark. “Barcelona is still held up today as how a city can transform its brand image. The Games there left a tremendous legacy for tourism. But the Spanish tourist board only started working on using Olympics the day after the closing ceremony – there was no interaction between them and the organising committee,” he says. However, forward planning can help to deliver an even stronger tourism legacy, Payne says. “If you go to Sydney, the tourist board had a long-term strategic plan. I think Britain is building on the model set in Australia of having a long-term strategic plan of how to exploit the fact that the country is hosting the Olympics, and a plan that will deliver a true legacy after the games about how the image of London is seen around the world.”

For Joss Croft, head of business visits and events at tourism agency VisitBritain, the Olympics coming to London is a shot in the arm. “There is an economic benefit – there is about GBP 2.1bn (USD 3.5bn) to 2.9bn (USD 4.8bn) benefit, but it’s more than that. It’s the opportunity to change people’s perceptions of Britain. When people perceive Britain overseas typically they may have perceptions which aren’t necessarily correct – it’s our opportunity to get the brand of Britain out there in front of a new audience, a younger audience who we couldn’t possibly touch with normal tourism means.

“It’s less for us about that six to eight week period in 2012 – it’s developing the image and reputation of Britain and accessing new markets. It’s the biggest and the best thing to happen in Britain.”