25 September 2013
The dust has settled on the 2013 UCI MTB & Trails World Championships and the UCI Masters MTB World Championships, but the economic impact remains, and it is a hugely positive one for the city of Pietermaritzburg and the broader KwaZulu-Natal economy.
Figures released by the organisers value the direct economic activity and media exposure at an impressive R3-billion.
Television value
The impact that the television production had on the event and on promoting the city was substantial due to the fact that the action was broadcast all over the world.
The event report suggests that the minimum coverage will amount to a grand total of 196 hours, which equates to a monetary value of approximately R2.94-billion.
The competition was shown on five continents, with a number of television networks taking the feed from the venue in order to broadcast in their countries. Along with the television coverage, Redbull Media TV broadcast the event and logged record traffic on its site throughout.
Pietermaritzburg
The Masters competition alone had 591 competitors, largely South African but, if one includes support staff and families the number of people that were in the city sits at an estimated 1 491 people over the duration of the event.
The MTB and Trials World Championships were seen as the signature event of the whole stay and 903 riders were accredited to compete in the event. This coupled with the large support crews that the teams brought with them brings the overall figure to 1 866 people staying for the duration of the Elite World Championships.
The economic impact has now been estimated and a conservative estimate has been reached as to how much money each of the events brought into the city.
City spending
Over the Masters event, the estimate was slightly over R10.3-million. The Elite event saw the city pull in just under R33.7-million. These amounts were just for the competitors and crews over the two weeks of the competitions.
The media contingent was just over 200-strong and that meant that they too were responsible for bringing in a fair sum of money into the city. It was estimated that the entire media contingent contributed just over R2-million in Pietermaritzburg over the duration of the World Champs.
A resounding success
Adding up these figures means that the two events event brought in an estimated total of R46 038 700 over their duration. Coupled with the benefits that they brought to the community of Pietermaritzburg, there is no doubt they were a resounding success.
The final financial report released after the event stated that the amount of spending from the participants in the city could not be accurately gauged, which means that a fair amount of money is unaccounted for that has been injected into the local community through spending at restaurants, shops and the like.
The local organising committee spent over R3-million in local communities and all of the people that were employed by them were locally sourced.
SAinfo reporter
