2019 World Cup gave 350 million pounds boost to UK economy

The ICC Mens World Cup in 2019, which was won by hosts England, generated a total economic impact to the UK of around 350 million pounds, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said on Tuesday.

The findings of an economic impact and benefits analysis carried out on behalf of the ICC by The Sports Consultancy show that the tournament generated the amount through additional money spent in the host economy by event visitors and organisers as well as business to business supplier contracts and broader consumer spend.

More than half a million bed nights were generated with an income of 46.5 million pounds thanks to almost 650,000 out of town spectators, 128,385 of whom were international ticket buyers.

London attracted the most direct economic impact of almost 65 million pounds, whilst semi-final venues Manchester and Birmingham attracted a direct economic impact of 36.3 million pounds and 29.7 million pounds respectively.

The live coverage of the event reached a global cumulative average audience of 1.6 billion viewers whilst digital video content netted over 4.6 billion views confirming the event's position as one of the world's most watched sporting events.

ICC Chief Executive Manu Sawhney said: "The ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2019 was an outstanding success across all measures which is further underlined by this report and the significant contribution of 350 million pounds it has brought to the UK economy. This makes it one of the biggest sporting events in the UK in recent history.

"ICC events provide a wonderful platform to connect more deeply with a diverse audience of hundreds of millions of fans and to aggregate audiences like never before even in our increasingly fragmented world.

"The rise of cricket tourism is clearly demonstrated with almost 20 percent of attendees coming from overseas and a total of 85 percent of ticket buyers coming from out of town with cricket fans increasingly prepared to travel to support their team. We expect this trend to continue to rise as the Asian sub-continent continues rapid economic growth.

"We are currently in the process of getting expressions of interest from our members to host future events post 2023 as part of our ambitions to grow the game globally. This report clearly demonstrates staging ICC events not only provides our host countries with the opportunity to showcase the very best they have to offer to an enormous global audience they are also a major global driver for social, cultural and economic impact." IANS