Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup worth $1m a dayTeams have started arriving in Australia for the Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup, which is set to deliver a boost to the economy of $1 million a day over three weeks.
The multi-city tournament kicks off on January 9 when Australia plays Kuwait in Melbourne.
Sixteen teams will play 32 matches in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Newcastle and Canberra.
Tourism Australia says the 23-day event could add $23 million to gross domestic product, and anticipates a 15 per cent jump in tourist numbers in the months immediately following the tournament.
Tourism Australia managing director John O’Sullivan said the cup would boost international and domestic tourism numbers, as well as showcase Australia to a potential television audience of 2.5 billion viewers.
Asia is already Australia’s fastest growing and most valuable international inbound tourism region.
More than 500,000 spectators are expected attend matches, including around 30,000 fans from overseas.
PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates the GDP impact could be as much as $23 million
“Fans will inject millions of dollars into our visitor economy, benefiting hotels, restaurants, bars, shops and our tourism attractions,” Mr O’Sullivan said.
“The 2000 Sydney Olympics saw a 15 per cent increase in international visitors in the three months after the Games finished, and we’re hoping to a long tail from the campaign activity we’ve been running in markets such as China, Japan and Korea, who have teams competing in the tournament,” Mr O’Sullivan said.
Asian Cup Local Organising Committee chief executive Michael Brown, who has previously worked for Cricket Australia and the AFL club Hawthorn, estimates the tournament will generate $240 million in spending. He estimated ticket sales at $20 million.
“Were really excited, ticket sales are ahead of budget,” Mr Brown said in an interview with The Australian Financial Review.
“Its a massive event. This is the 47 countries of Asia coming together to provide the best 16. We know that Asia is the growth engine for the world economy and for world football.”
The Asian Cup is held every four years in between FIFA World Cup finals tournaments.
Seven of Australia’s top 10 trading partners are competing at the cup. The federal government committed $61 million to the event.
Three-time Asian Cup champions Iran arrived on Tuesday and are staying on Sydney’s northern beaches. They will train at Cromer Park, home to Manly United, on January 7, before they head to Melbourne for their opening match against Bahrain on January 11.
Australia’s hosting status also helped the team qualify for the cup, but is also the favourite to win.
Japan and South Korea qualified on the basis of their last tournament performance. The other teams competing are Palestine and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), Bahrain, China, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Uzbekistan.
Key markets
The organising committee chief said it was a great chance to show off Australia to a number of “key markets”.
“Its a great opportunity for the window of the world to see what we are doing in a business sense because local businesses will be renovating stadiums, building infrastructure, providing information technology, providing a whole lot of things in around the event,” Mr Brown said.
“Asia is not only the place we do business but increasingly it is becoming the place we play so we are working very closely with all our tourism groups and Austrade.”
As part of the tournament, Austrade’s Match Australia has moved into full swing, pairing business people and trade officials at key matches and holding trade events.
Match Australia has already held networking events leading up to the cup in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, China, Qatar, Korea and Japan.
But the tournament’s ambitions even broader, with Mr Brown stressing the diverse and global nature of football.
“Sport will bring together the fantastic multi-cultural things that the Asian cup brings together and that Australia stands for,” he said.
“Its really important for us, we are engaging across our own multicultural community here, across each of them we have massive support from Iranian community, the Arab community, Japan, China, Korea, so there a massive opportunity to join the dots, with 25 per cent of our population born overseas.
‘Summer of sport’
Tourism Transport Forum chief executive Margy Osmond said Australia was experiencing a “serious summer of sport... with some amazing global opportunities.
“It presents unique opportunities beyond the tournament, the investment by some of these key partners who are keenly looking for opportunities here in Australia.
“The cricket world cup follows this and this really is a pivotal moment for the Australian tourism industry, to showcase the country to both visitors and investors.
“We’ve also managed to generate some really interesting changes to government policy off the back of the cricket as well, which is a joint visa arrangement between Australia and New Zealand for the period of the cricket, so these tournaments are also allowing us to explore some really serious visa reform issues with the federal government.
“It’s all very well to invite these people but you’ve got to make it easier to come particularly for the Chinese.”
The multi-city tournament kicks off on January 9 when Australia plays Kuwait in Melbourne.
Sixteen teams will play 32 matches in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Newcastle and Canberra.
Tourism Australia says the 23-day event could add $23 million to gross domestic product, and anticipates a 15 per cent jump in tourist numbers in the months immediately following the tournament.
Tourism Australia managing director John O’Sullivan said the cup would boost international and domestic tourism numbers, as well as showcase Australia to a potential television audience of 2.5 billion viewers.
Asia is already Australia’s fastest growing and most valuable international inbound tourism region.
More than 500,000 spectators are expected attend matches, including around 30,000 fans from overseas.
PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates the GDP impact could be as much as $23 million
“Fans will inject millions of dollars into our visitor economy, benefiting hotels, restaurants, bars, shops and our tourism attractions,” Mr O’Sullivan said.
“The 2000 Sydney Olympics saw a 15 per cent increase in international visitors in the three months after the Games finished, and we’re hoping to a long tail from the campaign activity we’ve been running in markets such as China, Japan and Korea, who have teams competing in the tournament,” Mr O’Sullivan said.
Asian Cup Local Organising Committee chief executive Michael Brown, who has previously worked for Cricket Australia and the AFL club Hawthorn, estimates the tournament will generate $240 million in spending. He estimated ticket sales at $20 million.
“Were really excited, ticket sales are ahead of budget,” Mr Brown said in an interview with The Australian Financial Review.
“Its a massive event. This is the 47 countries of Asia coming together to provide the best 16. We know that Asia is the growth engine for the world economy and for world football.”
The Asian Cup is held every four years in between FIFA World Cup finals tournaments.
Seven of Australia’s top 10 trading partners are competing at the cup. The federal government committed $61 million to the event.
Three-time Asian Cup champions Iran arrived on Tuesday and are staying on Sydney’s northern beaches. They will train at Cromer Park, home to Manly United, on January 7, before they head to Melbourne for their opening match against Bahrain on January 11.
Australia’s hosting status also helped the team qualify for the cup, but is also the favourite to win.
Japan and South Korea qualified on the basis of their last tournament performance. The other teams competing are Palestine and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), Bahrain, China, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Uzbekistan.
Key markets
The organising committee chief said it was a great chance to show off Australia to a number of “key markets”.
“Its a great opportunity for the window of the world to see what we are doing in a business sense because local businesses will be renovating stadiums, building infrastructure, providing information technology, providing a whole lot of things in around the event,” Mr Brown said.
“Asia is not only the place we do business but increasingly it is becoming the place we play so we are working very closely with all our tourism groups and Austrade.”
As part of the tournament, Austrade’s Match Australia has moved into full swing, pairing business people and trade officials at key matches and holding trade events.
Match Australia has already held networking events leading up to the cup in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, China, Qatar, Korea and Japan.
But the tournament’s ambitions even broader, with Mr Brown stressing the diverse and global nature of football.
“Sport will bring together the fantastic multi-cultural things that the Asian cup brings together and that Australia stands for,” he said.
“Its really important for us, we are engaging across our own multicultural community here, across each of them we have massive support from Iranian community, the Arab community, Japan, China, Korea, so there a massive opportunity to join the dots, with 25 per cent of our population born overseas.
‘Summer of sport’
Tourism Transport Forum chief executive Margy Osmond said Australia was experiencing a “serious summer of sport... with some amazing global opportunities.
“It presents unique opportunities beyond the tournament, the investment by some of these key partners who are keenly looking for opportunities here in Australia.
“The cricket world cup follows this and this really is a pivotal moment for the Australian tourism industry, to showcase the country to both visitors and investors.
“We’ve also managed to generate some really interesting changes to government policy off the back of the cricket as well, which is a joint visa arrangement between Australia and New Zealand for the period of the cricket, so these tournaments are also allowing us to explore some really serious visa reform issues with the federal government.
“It’s all very well to invite these people but you’ve got to make it easier to come particularly for the Chinese.”
couple weeks old but nice foxsports video about Alireza Jahanbaksh and his Christmas experience in Holland.
http://footballitarin.com/video_page.php?id=12949
http://footballitarin.com/video_page.php?id=12949
