Brazilian followers throughout the 2010 FIFA World Cup hosted by South Africa. The increase to tourism got here later. Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images
The World Cup kicks off on 20 November, when Qatar will host Ecuador within the opening match. It will conclude on 18 December when the ultimate will likely be performed within the 80 000-seater Lusail Iconic Stadium. In the intervening weeks the world’s consideration will likely be on Qatar, the smallest nation by land space ever to host the occasion. Having confronted a lot criticism ever since successful the bid, it’s probably that Qatar would wish to impress. Expect the spectacular.
But Qatar won’t simply be on each TV or cell display screen globally. More than 1 million vacationers are anticipated to make the journey, offering a much-needed financial injection. In reality, the Chief Operating Officer of Qatar Tourism, Berthold Trenkel, has made it clear that Qatar goals to wow guests with way over simply soccer. Over the previous couple of months, new seashores, theme parks, and water sports activities accommodations have opened. And 1 November will see the opening of the much-anticipated Lusail Winter Wonderland, an island filled with vacationer sights that, based on its web site, provide the ‘final leisure and life-style celebration’.
But are these expectations of upper vacationer numbers real looking?
Economists have considered this query for a while. When international locations bid for mega-sport occasions just like the FIFA World Cup, their politicians typically make daring predictions concerning the probably tourism results. They have a tendency to make use of these identical numbers to persuade their taxpayers to fork out the extra prices of recent infrastructure. And it is smart: an occasion that pulls a lot international consideration should certainly enhance its attraction, attracting new audiences and future guests.
Swings and roundabouts
Yet, as a number of economists have identified, there are lots of causes to doubt these predictions.
One factor to remember is displacement: vacationers that may usually go to a vacation spot may determine to remain away due to a mega-event, lowering the online variety of arrivals. The displacement measurement is perhaps affected by many issues: the season wherein the mega-event is held, for instance, or the kind of mega-event. Bigger occasions, just like the Summer Olympics, are probably to attract extra guests than the Basketball World Cup.
Sometimes the scale of the tourism bonanza is at the same time as weird as which international locations qualify for the occasion. In a 2017 paper, we confirmed that Thierry Henry’s handball in a qualification sport between France and the Republic of Ireland for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which allowed France to qualify for the finals, introduced nearly 30,000 extra vacationers to South Africa, creating greater than 6000 extra jobs.
This is as a result of France is a a lot bigger nation than Ireland, with much more vacationers visiting South Africa – regardless of France’s dismal efficiency – than the variety of Irish vacationers that may have come had Ireland certified.
Just how a lot mega-sport occasions truly increase tourism is a query we first tried to reply greater than a decade in the past. Our first paper printed in 2011 confirmed that internet hosting an occasion such because the FIFA World Cup or the Olympic Games elevated tourism by about 8%, on common. Although the common was sizeable, it masked some variation throughout the totally different occasions we studied: the Summer Olympics had huge results, the Rugby World Cup, not a lot.
We lately printed a follow-up paper. We up to date our time collection (now overlaying all vacationer arrivals from 1995 to 2019); we added a wider choice of mega-sport occasions (from six to eleven); and we integrated new methods to estimate the gravity mannequin. We additionally examined a wider vary of hypotheses.
The findings
After our up to date evaluation, we’re much more skeptical of the big tourism impact of mega-sport occasions. While we nonetheless discover a big and constructive impact on internet hosting the Summer Olympic Games – a sizeable 18.2% – most different occasions reveal zero and even adverse change.
Hosting the Cricket World Cup, for instance, reduces the variety of vacationer arrivals. This is partly defined by the truth that it occurs within the peak vacationer season and is commonly hosted by wealthy international locations. The displacement impact is bigger than the variety of new guests.
Perhaps, some may say, the principle advantage of internet hosting an occasion is that tourism numbers enhance within the years after an occasion – not essentially throughout the occasion itself. We examined this and located a really small legacy impact. In reality, we discover a bigger anticipatory impact: host international locations tended to welcome extra vacationers a 12 months or two earlier than internet hosting an occasion.
This means that an vital a part of internet hosting a mega-sport occasion is signalling the nation’s openness to vacationers, but in addition to traders and the broader worldwide neighborhood.
It is vital to remember that our evaluation will not be a cost-benefit evaluation. To correctly consider the financial advantages of internet hosting a sport occasion – of which tourism is one – the advantages should be weighed towards the prices, akin to constructing new stadiums or transportation networks.
But given how vital tourism is in justifying a brand new bid, we imagine it’s helpful to ask whether or not these hopeful guarantees are ever fulfilled.
A ultimate discovering additionally has implications for future bids. We discovered that growing international locations see bigger will increase in tourism than developed international locations. The subsequent three Summer Olympic Games will likely be held in France, the US, and Australia. Qatar and a joint effort by the US, Canada, and Mexico will host the following two FIFA World Cups.
Of the seven host international locations for the 5 largest sporting occasions, just one is a growing nation. We conclude:
If this pattern continues, the returns we’ve measured above are unlikely to be repeated for future mega-sport occasions. That would indicate that the period of internet hosting mega-sport occasions as a result of they enhance tourism is over.
All will not be misplaced, although. Several growing international locations are bidding to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup. These embrace Morocco, a joint bid from Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, and Paraguay, and an inter-confederation bid from Egypt, Greece, and Saudi Arabia. If boosting tourism is certainly one of many major priorities of host international locations, then one in every of these bids is most definitely to extend vacationer arrivals, even and not using a Winter Wonderland.
Maria Santana Gallego receives funding from grant PID2019-106738GB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by ERDF A approach of creating Europe
Johan Fourie doesn’t work for, seek the advice of, personal shares in or obtain funding from any firm or organisation that may profit from this text, and has disclosed no related affiliations past their educational appointment.