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European Athletics U20 Championships had impact of more than €8 million

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A recently released survey into the economic impact of the Grosset 2017 European Athletics U20 Championships has revealed that more than €8 million was injected into the local, regional and national economy as a result of the picturesque Italian city staging the four-day event last July.

The survey was commissioned and undertaken by the Italian athletics federation FIDAL to reinforce its belief in the economic and social benefits of staging continental and global athletics competitions.

The following are the main issues and conclusions from the survey.

  • There were 2759 accredited people at the championships – 1799 from participating Member Federations (athletes, coaches, doctors and officals), 631 accredited LOC and FIDAL officials, judges, technicians and volunteers, and 329 media as well as FIDAL and European Athletics guests – who were accomodated for an average of six nights per person in 21 hotels in Grosseto and the surrounding region.

  • Accredited personnel at the championships generated an estimated €1.3 million in economic contributions.

  • An analysis of the 36,500 spectators who attended across the four days of competition – taking into account the various origins, ages, type of accommodation and duration of stay – concluded that overseas visitors contributed an average of €105 per person per day during their stay in Grosseto while Italians who had travelled from elsewhere in Italy spent an average of €90 per person per day.

  • In total, the survey estimated that more than €4.1 million was spent by non-accredited visitors to the championships and, as might be expected, this was mainly in local restaurants/bars and on accommodation.

  • A further additional but un-quantifiable boost to the economy is likely to come in the future as a questionnaire of accredited personal and non-accredited visitors saw 97% give a positive response to Grosseto as a town and the championships themselves, with many of these respondents indicating that they would consider returning to Grosseto and/or the region of Tuscany.

  • No less than 75% of the respondents to the questionnaire – which was a cross-section of local Grosseto residents, Italians from elsewhere in the country and overseas visitors – said that their perception of Grosseto and the surrounding region had improved as a result of visiting the city and region during the championships while 79% said that they believed that the city’s image had improved because of the championships.

  • The local authorities also invested almost €1 million in infrastructural work at the host venue, the Stadio Olimpico Zecchini, as well as at the nearby warmup track, the Campo Scuola Bruno Zauli.

  • The championships saw 12 hours of live TV on the Italian national broadcaster RAI and a further 42 hours elsewhere across Europe. Added to newspaper, website and social media coverage, this was deemed to represent the equivalent media spend of €1.7 million.

European Athletics would like to congratulate FIDAL for undertaking the research necessary to establish the survey’s findings and the material produced will form the basis of future European Athletics presentations to potential hosts of its competitions.

The survey provides very strong evidence of what European Athletics has always believed, that its competitions can have a very positive economic and social impact as well as fostering the obvious benefits of good sporting competition and a healthy lifestyle.




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