If you are part of the tourist board for Paris or Tokyo or New York, you have visitors coming in all the time, for millions of different reasons. If you are a smaller town or less urban region, you have to look around and ask some hard questions....what do we have that can draw visitors and tourism dollars since we appear to have misplaced our Eiffel Tower?

One answer these days is sports tourism.

Several towns and cities in Texas, for example, emphasize their sports facilities in tourism marketing materials. Arlington has the Texas Rangers ballpark, the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame and of course, the schmancy new Dallas Cowboys stadium. The west Texas town of Midland touts its family-friendly Rockhounds minor league baseball team, the Scharbauer Sports Complex for hosting a variety of tournaments and the Odessa Jackalopes Hockey team.

My own hometown of Round Rock uses the tagline "Sports Capital of Texas" for its offerings in youth, amateur and recreational sports. The Round Rock CVB (Convention and Visitor's Bureau) is active in social media channels and hired me to do some YouTube video work tied mostly to the sports angle. It helps to round out and enhance the content that already flows to our Facebook, Twitter and Flickr accounts.

An unexpected benefit of this for me personally is discovering sports treasures right under my nose. I had no idea, for example, that we have an active cricket league with a full pitch in our Old Settler's Park, plus a world-class disc golf course and even a flying area for RC (remote-controlled) planes and helicopters. I spent part of a weekend shooting video at a big teen bowling event, and when Team USA women's football held their training camp here prior to a major international tournament, it was great fun to interview them about their love of football and their impressions of my town's facilities.

All of those players, coaches, managers, trainers and family members mean dollars flowing into the local economy from "heads in beds and napkins in laps."

It may not be as glamorous as having the Eiffel Tower or a hopping club scene, but tourism organizations of every size are recognizing that sports can be a great way to entice and welcome visitors.

Here's that women's football video below if you're interested (direct link to it on YouTube if you can't see it.) The IWFL returns to Round Rock this weekend, with the World Championship game at 7 pm Saturday July 24, and the League All-Star Game at 10 am Sunday July 25, both at the RRISD "Palace" Sports Complex.

(This was also a featured post on Sportsnetworker.com)