Study on the Net Economic Impact of Mega Sport Events: Perspective of Visitors’ Expenditure (Case Study of the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games)

Abstract

AbstractThis study assesses the economic impact of the Guangzhou Asian Games from the perspective of that expenditure. It examines how much economic impact sporadic sports mega-events have, and the extent to which their results can be measured by economic data. Expenditure data were collected through questionnaires, and the input-output (I-O) model was used to evaluate the Games’ direct and indirect economic impact. We focus on classifying and quantifying Asian Games visitors, which remove part of the squeezing effect and thus accurately define the net economic impact. Among the several categories of participants investigated, the data show that “event visitors” were the primary source of economic impact from visitors’ expenditure. Although only 32.56% of all visitors were event visitors, their economic contribution made up 61.39%of the total expenditure. Overall, the 722,074 Asian Games visitors produced an economic return of 2,709,247,693 yuan. The average expenditure was 1,688 yuan and the multiplier o...