January 25 – A report into the economic impact of the UEFA EURO 2016 championships in France found that despite terror fears and high security levels, fans turning up to watch the tournament injected more than €1.2 billion into the French economy.
The report, undertaken jointly by the Limoges-based Centre for Sports Law and Economy (CDES) and the KENEO agency, analysed the spending impact of officials and participating teams, coupled with 613,000 visitors, across the 13 cities that hosted matches.
Foreign visitors stayed in France for an average 7.9 days and spent an average of €154 per day, says the report. The total amount spent by those visiting the UEFA EURO 2016 host country was €625.8 million.
France spent €200 million of public money in preparing the country for the event.
Jacques Lambert, President of UEFA EURO 2016 SAS, said: ”Major sporting events can be expensive in terms of investment, but there are both direct and indirect benefits [for the host country]. It has been demonstrated that events like these have a positive economic impact.”
This was echoes by Martin Kallen, EURO 2016 tournament director and CEO of UEFA Events. “There is no doubt that hosting a UEFA EURO is a massive financial benefit to any region. UEFA EURO 2016 showed that fans are willing to travel en masse to follow their respective countries, and the figures from the report showed just how much the money spent helped the local economy,” he said.
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