Factors explaining the expenditure of sports event participants and spectators: evidence from the 2018 Asian Games

ABSTRACT

This study aims to estimate the factors explaining the expenditure of the 2018 Asian Games’ international attendees, including athletes, officials, journalists, committees and spectators. During two weeks of the event, a survey was administered yielding valid responses from 1914 respondents. The findings suggest that spending compositions differ across age group, country of origins and types of participant. Furthermore, the total spending correlates with types of participants, age group, country of origins, length of stay, travelling experiences and internet provision. The respondents’ perception on host country’s safety and security is also an important aspect to be considered for future mega sporting event, especially after the global Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The implications of the findings are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Sporting event
• spending behaviour
• sports tourism
• Asian Games
• Indonesia

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• L83
• M30
• R10
• Z2
• Z3

Acknowledgements

This study is a part of the 2018 Asian Games Economic Impact Analysis Project by the National Development Planning Agency/Ministry of National Development Planning (Bappenas), the Republic of Indonesia. We thank Bappenas and Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade that for their support. We also thank Devina Anindita, Hamdan Bintara, Uka Wikarya, Nurindah W. Hastuti, Ainul Huda, Devianto, Moslem Afrizal, Wahyu Pramono, Srie Mustika Rahayu and the survey team for their contribution in data collection and processing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The low total spending of IAs, COs and OCAs should be interpreted with caution. Their total spending does not include accommodation because most of IAs and COs stayed at the AV during the event. They did not know the exact amount of AV rent because it was charged directly to their respective countries. Hence, the accommodation spending is discussed separately in the next section and illustrated in Figure 3.

2 Most of IAs stayed in the AVs during the event, the cost of which is paid by their respective countries. However, Table 3 shows that there is still a small amount of IA’s average accommodation spending (USD3.13). This is because some IAs stayed in Indonesia beyond the event, which cost should be paid from IAs own pocket.