Resumen de Research Note: The impact on tourism of mega-sporting events: the stakes of foreign spectators
Eric Barget, Jean-Jacques Gouguet
Many economic impact studies have been commissioned to ensure that mega-sporting events have an influence on the level of economic activity of the host territory. The attraction of many tourists is usually at the center of the analysis. Nevertheless, these studies are still controversial. Indeed, major methodological challenges arise when it comes to making such calculations, and results should be interpreted with a great deal of caution. We have tried to avoid the main biases linked to calculating the impact in order to develop the most reliable assessment possible of a mega-sporting event. By using base theory and collecting quality information, we have tried to avoid common errors. We chose the Rugby World Cup 2007 in France to illustrate this debate. Foreign spectators were at the root of most of the economic impact on French regions, with significant differences depending on their nationalities and their sociodemographic profiles. It thus appeared that the regional impact of the event was even stronger, since the host matches attracted many foreign spectators with a high level of income and expenditure.
