Chal­lenges and rec­om­men­da­tions and the way for­ward sec­tions of the Im­pact Eval­u­a­tion Re­port of the Com­mon­wealth Youth Games (CYG) 2023 host­ed by T&T tell the re­al sto­ry and pro­vide an in­valu­able and sig­nif­i­cant tem­plate for the way for­ward for T&T's sports tourism strat­e­gy.

The re­port is com­pre­hen­sive and based on cred­i­ble method­ol­o­gy. The lessons with­in must not be ig­nored.

En­ti­tled "Trin­ba­go 2023 de­liv­ers a pow­er­ful lega­cy for the host na­tion", the re­port as­serts that the host­ing of the 2023 CYG by T&T is the cor­ner­stone of a sport­ing lega­cy for the host na­tion.

Ac­cord­ing to the re­port Trin­ba­go 2023 – the first CYG to be host­ed in a Caribbean coun­try – was the cat­a­lyst for world-class venue trans­for­ma­tions and a com­mit­ment to sport­ing in­clu­siv­i­ty in the coun­try through the in­te­gra­tion of para-ath­let­ics for the first time in­to the Youth Games sports pro­gramme. It al­so stat­ed that the sev­enth edi­tion of the Games played a piv­otal role in in­spir­ing youth, fos­ter­ing com­mu­ni­ty en­gage­ment, pro­mot­ing sports tourism and es­tab­lish­ing a vol­un­teer cul­ture in T&T.

Ac­cord­ing to Com­mon­wealth Games Fed­er­a­tion (CGF) pres­i­dent Chris Jenk­ins OBE: "T&T’s suc­cess­ful host­ing of the 2023 Com­mon­wealth Youth Games has de­liv­ered a last­ing lega­cy for the hosts and a tan­gi­ble re­turn on pub­lic in­vest­ment, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the area of venue de­vel­op­ment, that boosts their as­pi­ra­tions to host oth­er glob­al sport­ing events."

Di­ane Hen­der­son, pres­i­dent of T&T Com­mon­wealth Games As­so­ci­a­tion said, "Trin­ba­go 2023 har­nessed the youth­ful en­er­gy of mem­ber na­tions, em­pha­sis­ing vol­un­teerism and em­pow­er­ing ath­letes to en­gage in the busi­ness of sport. Through­out our jour­ney, nu­mer­ous pos­i­tives emerged: the Trin­ba­go 2023 Car­a­van, a school out­reach ini­tia­tive, shared Com­mon­wealth knowl­edge and sports aware­ness, while the Youth Voice Con­fer­ence, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Com­mon­wealth Sec­re­tari­at, ex­em­pli­fied youth-dri­ven ini­tia­tives. The Games wit­nessed a demon­stra­tion of na­tion­al pride with 1,900 vol­un­teers, safe­guard­ing poli­cies, ed­u­ca­tion, and An­ti-Dop­ing ad­vo­ca­cy."

The re­port, fund­ed by the Com­mon­wealth Sec­re­tari­at, was pre­sent­ed at the Au­gust 2024 11th Com­mon­wealth Sports Min­is­ters Meet­ing (CSMM) in Paris as part of the Com­mon­wealth’s ef­fort to deep­en ev­i­dence-based sports pol­i­cy.

In­flu­enced by the Com­mon­wealth Sec­re­tari­at’s Glob­al Sport and SDG In­di­ca­tors and the As­so­ci­a­tion of Sum­mer Olympics In­ter­na­tion­al Fed­er­a­tions (ASOIF) frame­work, the re­port high­lights pos­i­tive eco­nom­ic, so­cial, im­age, sport and en­vi­ron­men­tal im­pacts that laid the foun­da­tion for Trin­ba­go 2023’s en­dur­ing lega­cy and helps shape the host na­tion’s fu­ture poli­cies and de­vel­op­ment ob­jec­tives.

The re­port iden­ti­fied that the eco­nom­ic im­pact – po­si­tions T&T as an at­trac­tive po­ten­tial host of fu­ture in­ter­na­tion­al events to fur­ther es­tab­lish its rep­u­ta­tion in sports tourism.

Sur­vey feed­back re­vealed a height­ened na­tion­al pride, at­tendee sat­is­fac­tion, and a strong like­li­hood to rec­om­mend the Games. Eighty-nine (89) per cent of res­i­dents sur­veyed were proud that T&T host­ed the Games and 94 per cent of at­ten­dees were sat­is­fied with the Games. Sev­en in 10 res­i­dents sur­veyed at the Games or who watched were in­spired to do more sports/recre­ation­al or phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty – con­tribut­ing to lo­cal sports de­vel­op­ment.

In 2018, when the idea and vi­sion to host the Games was first ar­tic­u­lat­ed some didn't be­lieve that it could be done. Even up to one year be­fore the ac­tu­al Games, the dis­be­liev­ers were vo­cal but still rode the band­wag­on.

The re­port forms the ba­sis for T&T host­ing the 2025 Caribbean As­so­ci­a­tion of Na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tees (CANOC) Caribbean Games. Why hasn't T&T ex­pressed an in­ter­est? And why isn't the re­port the top­ic of dis­cus­sion by sports tourism pol­i­cy­mak­ers, acad­e­mia, and the me­dia?

The re­port must not be al­lowed to gath­er dust. It's a must-read!