The World Athletics Championships can bring a noticeable boost to the tourism and economy of Budapest and the country - hirado.hu asked tourism journalist Róbert Kiss and sports economist Gábor Szabados about the effects of the world event in connection with the cancellation of the event by Mayor Gergely Karácsony and the opposition.

The athletics world championship is the most popular sports event affecting the entire world after the soccer world championship and the Olympics, the tourism expert told hirado.hu.

This means that the competitors, the attendants, the staff and all those who come to Hungary for the World Athletics Championships are already generating traffic for the catering establishments. From a tourism point of view, such a sports event brings serious results, he added.

"Let's not forget that the event is also good for the country's image, since the World Cup is broadcast in most countries of the world," emphasized Róbert Richard Kiss.

During this period, about two thousand athletes arrive in the given country, this is one fifth of an Olympic participation, which is quite a high number. This means that there are many competitors and the event is attractive to the public, and this also means extraordinary, immediate income for the service providers. It is even possible to calculate with more than a hundred thousand people, including the arriving guests, crew members and media workers, the expert said.

Mentioning Hungary and the capital, Budapest, in a positive environment can increase interest and the number of visitors in the long term. The impact of the money spent by tourists in the capital could be felt in the long term.

The Athletics World Cup is an investment that pays off in the long term

Sports economist Gábor Szabados told hirado.hu: although this is difficult to quantify, such a sports event is a profitable investment in every way, which has social and economic effects. The specialist highlighted primarily the tourists visiting the event and the money they spent.

- The Athletics World Cup has a very serious impact on the national economy. There are only about 2,000 athletes, which is a very large number, and in addition to this, the attendants and crew members arrive with them. The World Athletics Championship is also one of the biggest events in the world from this point of view, he underlined.

Fans come in larger numbers than the athletes as well as their companions. Sports events take place over ten days in the 40,000-seat stadium; this means 400,000 tickets sold, but this obviously does not represent that many people, because someone may be interested in several sporting events.

However, we can say that the sports event would attract hundreds of thousands of foreign tourists to Hungary, and their spending would mean tens of billions of HUF in revenue for the economy

he added.

The material impact of an event is a fundamental value, " but I always say that this is not the real value of such an event, because it is a short-term effect ".

The real value of such an event is the long-term value that appears after the event, and this is more the infrastructural impact. An infrastructure will be created that we ourselves will use after the World Cup, said Szabados.

The sports economist also said that

the PR effect, which this whole event means, has an external effect - the development of the country's image - and an internal effect, that is, it means the building of the national community and the strengthening of the national identity.

If we look at it on "checkered paper", almost all such events are unprofitable, because the direct financial return is not positive, but the usefulness of these events must be measured in the long-term economic and social benefits that appear after the event is over, explained Szabados. Gábor, and added that this is the case with all infrastructure investments, in fact it is like a marketing expenditure. But overall, it can be said that the World Championships in Athletics is a worthwhile investment.

The capital does not wish to host the World Athletics Championships for political reasons

As is known, the Capital Assembly recently adopted the decision according to which Budapest does not wish to host the sports event . The general assembly voted on this a day after the Hungarian Athletics Association announced that the Metropolitan Municipality is not competent in the matter of the arrangement. According to mayor Gergely Karácsony, this is not a problem. However, according to the representatives of the ruling party, the whole matter was invented by the left so that there would be no need to talk about the traffic jams and the chaos in the capital.

In 2018, Hungary won the opportunity to host one of the world's most important sporting events, the World Athletics Championships, in 2023.

Source: hirado.hu

On the cover photo: the visual design of the National Athletic Stadium (Photo: Facebook)