With the Cricket World Cup about to start in the next week and as India gets ready to host the men’s World Cup for the 4th time in history, regardless of the result of the World Cup whether India wins it or not, the Indian economy is surely set to be a winner as according to a BQ Prime report, simply by hosting the World Cup. India’s economy is set to experience a boost and will be $1.64 billion richer after the World Cup.

When the World Cup kicks off, it means thousands of fans from all over the world travelling to India, buying tickets for the games, staying at hotels, eating food at restaurants and roadside stalls, ordering food at home through home delivery during the matches, purchasing memorabilia, merchandise and souvenirs, visiting local monuments and tourist destinations and so much more. This all is sure to boost a ton of money into the Indian economy as the cost for any of this will be higher due to the simple economic concept of demand and supply matched with the capitalistic gains the various industries will want to have.

The combined economic impact of such direct and indirect spending during the tournament would be at least $1.6 billion, as per the BQ Prime report.

World Cup

The direct financial impact factors in spending on airfares, accommodation, stadium tickets, food and beverage, travel by domestic and international travellers. This also includes the BCCI’s spending on stadium renovations and on improving the infrastructure. The sum of all the cost of the abovementioned categories is counted as direct cost per match for an individual fan and differs from city to city. For example, a fan from Mumbai travelling to Delhi will spend Rs 29,600 while a fan from Delhi to Mumbai will spend Rs 30,200.

Apart from the expenditure incurred by the local and domestic fans, the report also takes into account the expenditure incurred by the international fans who wouldn’t come to India simply to watch matches. They would also come to India for tourism to its various picturesque locations. Tourists coming to India spend an average of 30% of their budget on airfares and 70% on tourism and associated expenses, according to estimates shared with BQ Prime by a travel agency.

Tourism in India during the World Cup

While, the 30% of the airfare works out to be almost Rs 63,000 per person for a return trip from any of the other nine participating nations, other than India. The remaining 70% expense incurred on tourism and associated expense, comes down to almost Rs 1.47 lakhs but since even the ticket price is included in that it shall be deducted so it can estimated that a foreign traveller spends almost Rs 1.14 lakhs on tourism. In all, international travellers are estimated to spend about Rs 5,705 crore on tourism in India during the World Cup, as per the BQ Primereport.

When it comes to the total World Cup impact, the combined direct and indirect impact is Rs 11,750 crore and on top of that another 15% impact is assumed for diversified and smaller spendings on merchandise and souvenirs from local markets. This takes the total estimated economic impact of the Cricket World Cup 2023 to Rs 13,500 crore, or about $1.64 billion at prevailing exchange rates.

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