The Economic Impact of Visitors at Major Multi-sport Events

Abstract This paper examines the economic impact of major multi-sport event on affected people. Their spending increases the economic benefit for the city and region staging the event. Therefore a theoretical differentiation of movements of persons affected by the event was done. A model was worked out to detect the regional primary economic impact through these people. This primary impact can be used in any model of economic impact analysis, such as input–output frameworks or multiplier theory. The complexities in considering the right persons and their spending are analysed and described in detail. A special focus is placed on the evaluation of opportunity costs on people that get crowded out as a result of hosting the event. Conclusions highlight the value of the right evaluation of the consumption of anyone affected by the major multi-sport event. Furthermore interesting findings on the consideration of “time switchers” and people avoiding the host city were made. Bidding for major sport events creates high levels of competitions between cities. As a result, event visitors, which are the main source of benefits, gain importance for the decision-making processes in whether to bid or not.