UK School Games helps local economy

Tuesday, 6 May 2009

New figures released from Fast Track, who deliver the UK School Games on behalf of the Youth Sport Trust, have shown that the UK School Games last August brought £2.4 million into Bath and Bristol.

More than 1,600 talented young people competed at the event which saw an opening ceremony, three days of competition and a four-night stay at an athletes' village based at the university's sports training village. The Games attracted more than 11,000 spectators and featured nine sports.

The analysis included a face-to-face survey of people who attended the event including competitors, spectators and officials.

The UK School Games is a multi-sport event for the UK’s elite school-aged young athletes of, which the Youth Sport Trust is responsible for its development and organisation.

The survey showed that:

31% of the £2.4 million was generated by families of competitors, with an average daily expenditure of £86.24 per family and £133.68 of families who stayed overnight.

76% of all the spectators at the event were visitors from outside Bath and Bristol and the majority who took part in the survey said the Games was the main reason they came to the area.

47% of visitors had not been to either Bath or Bristol before and 64.6% thought that they would return again soon.

96.7% of those questioned rated the cities as very good or good as a host city for sports events and 93.7% strongly agreed or agreed that more major sports events should be attracted to Bath and Bristol.

Click here to find out more about the UK School Games