Sport events and their socio-economic impact: residents’ perceptions of the Isuzu berg river canoe marathon

Abstract

Sport events have become big business as countries as well as cities are competing fi ercely to host major events. The purpose of this article is to determine the economic impact of visitor spending during the annual Cape Argus Pick ’n Pay Cycle Tour. Direct spending was determined based on asurvey consisting of 583 respondents, while the impact of their spending was modelled using the Western Cape Sectoral Accounting Matrix. The results show that the event generates approximately R131 million via visitor spending, and that 1 400 jobs depend on the event. Some of the reasons for the economic success of the event include: the variety of participants that it attracts, the low cost of infrastructure development and the increased length of stay by participants.