New Delhi, March 21 (IANS): Lack of infrastructure in the country was the highlight of a roundtable on sports tourism organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here Friday.

Ajeet Bajaj, managing director of Snow Leopard Adventures and director and co-founder of Adventure Nation, said proper and safe facilities were the need of the hour when it came to outdoor adventure sports.

"We need to tap into India's vast outdoor expanse. Other countries are ahead of us due to the diverse and state of the art adventure facilities they are offering to tourists," Bajaj told IANS at the Mantosh Sondhi Centre on the sidelines of the discussion.

Sports tourism is a pretty popular phenomenon. The term 'sport tourism' basically means tourism that is based on the theme of sports.

"India is one of the regions in the world that is slowly catching up with the fad of sports tourism. With adequate support from relevant authorities, sports tourism in India is indeed gaining immense prominence and popularity," said Subhash Goyal, president of Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO).

Some of the other eminent speakers at the discussion were Gaurav Ghei - renowned golfer and winner of three Asian Tour titles, Anil Khanna - president, All India Tennis Association (AITA), Sangeeta Bahl - amateur mountaineer and Vishwa Bandhu Gupta, founder of ballooning in India.