The Wallabies may have lost the series but Australia did very well financially out of the recent rugby tour by the British and Irish Lions, a tourism industry body said Friday.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the five-week tour generated an estimated Aus$150 million ($134 million) for the economy.
Sport24
The bureau’s overseas arrivals and departures figures show international arrivals rose by 7.0 percent in June.
Australia’s peak national industry body Tourism & Transport Forum (TTF) said the month’s figures showed the impact of major events on the economy such as the Lions tour.
“The stand out is 64.6 percent growth in visitor numbers from the United Kingdom in June, thanks to the British and Irish Lions tour,” TTF chief executive Ken Morrison said.
“An estimated 30-40 000 British and Irish supporters came to Australia for the tour, generating an estimated Aus$150 million for the Australian economy.
“This is a clear demonstration of the value of major events in supporting jobs and businesses in the visitor economy.”
The Lions tour generated a total attendance at the nine matches in Australia of 389 400.
The Lions won the series 2-1 after thrashing the Wallabies 41-16 in the final Sydney Test last month for their first series victory in 16 years.
The BIL tours are something to look forward too, as they are played only every 4 years, and thus generate a huge amount of interest. As for the rest of the internationals, it has become so watered down with the amount they play each other, that interest has waned significantly over the last few years – just read the comments from bloggers on this site for example.
To improve rugby, generally – thats players, crowd attendance, interest and profits, I really believe we need to take a step back, and as Loosie says on another thread, have a “have an inbound PROPER Tour and then a PROPER EOYT’
There is simply too much rugby at the moment, and too many meaningless matches/tournaments.