Abstract

This study examines changes in international tourist arrivals in Melbourne, Australia after the 2006 Commonwealth Games, and tourist arrivals in Jamaica after the 2007 Cricket World Cup matches to answer the questions: do international arrivals increase as a result of hosting a large sporting event, and how long is the impact sustained over the post-event period? Using data prior to the Games, autoregressive models with independent variables were used to model these series. The differences between the actual and predicted series after the Games were attributed to shocks caused by hosting the Commonwealth Games. In the Australian case, the results indicate that after the Games, international arrivals were marginally higher than before the Games. In the Jamaican case, the data indicate that while there was an increase in international tourist arrivals for the event, the international tourist arrivals from non-traditional countries increased after the World Cup Cricket matches.

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