European Family and Sports-for-all BeActive Beach Games

Background Holiday Barometer published in 2019, 62% of all European tourists prefer to vacation along the seaside with their families. Europeans use the beach for relaxing, therefore only 11% of the tourists do physical activity or play sports at the beach, which points out an increase in obesity and a decrease in physical fitness during the summer months and outdoor sports as a focus theme for EWOS and in 2019, 10% countries using beach for their EWOS events, thus this situation needs to take action. Objectives The overall objective of the European Family and Sports-For-All BeActive Beach Games (hereinafter also – the BeActive Beach Games) is to promote participation in sports and physical outdoor activities on the beach for European citizens from all segments of the population, especially focusing on multigenerational families, using beaches and waterside areas as the main setting and offering guidelines to develop a wide range of physical activities that can be freely adapted to beach settings. Implementation The main activity of the project was to organize two European Family and Sports-For-All Beach Games – in Ventspils (Latvia) and Portimao (Portugal) with a separate Family Cup competition for local families and up to 8 European families in each event participating and up to 8 European partners (EWOS national coordinators) to spectate. Events offered more than 20 multiple sports or physical activities for citizens including beach sports competitions, activities, and tryout sessions for all. Achievements The Beach Games in Latvia included 33 different physical activities with more than 2400 participants and 38 families in the Family Cup and the Games in Portugal involved more than 1200 participants and 25 families in 18 different physical activities. All activities involved more than 30 national sports federations and sports clubs to develop the Beach Games events. Additionally, 12 activity video guidelines were developed to adapt or organize certain sports activities with any beach setting.