English 
Vietnamese The biggest sporting events in the world, such as the FIFA World Cup, Olympic Games, or Super Bowl, not only captivate global audiences, but they also have significant impacts on tourism and the overall economy of the host countries. Sports events have a unique ability to draw crowds and create a buzz that extends far beyond the stadiums.
From a financial standpoint, this is an unmissed chance for hospitality businesses to boost their revenue.
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A Tourism Boom
The UEFA EURO 2024 and FIFA World Cup 2022 attracted millions of visitors to their host countries. A cumulative 3.4 million football fans attended the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, significantly boosting the country’s tourism sector.
An estimated 2.5 million people will travel to Berlin for the UEFA Euro 2024 tournament. Similarly, the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris is another major sporting event poised to have a significant impact on the hospitality industry, with the participation of 10,500 athletes and millions of visitors.
Read more: How Hotels Should Respond to the Ongoing Business Travel Boom
Economic Impacts
Hosting major sports events leads to substantial economic growth and development. These events bring forth a myriad of benefits:
Increased Spending
The surge in tourist spending is one of the most immediate advantages. Visitors flocking to the event spend money on accommodation, food, transportation, and souvenirs. This influx of capital directly injects money into the local economy, stimulating local businesses, which will experience a remarkable increase in sales.
Job Creation
Sporting events, regardless of their scales, have created temporary and permanent jobs in sectors. Construction projects for new stadiums or the renovation of existing facilities require labour and create job opportunities. Additionally, the need for event staff, security personnel, and hospitality workers increases, providing employment chances to many people.
Infrastructure Development
To accommodate the influx of tourists and ensure the smooth functioning of the event, host countries often invest in infrastructure improvements. For example, roads, airports, and public transport systems see remarkable upgrades that benefit residents long after the tournament has concluded.
Impacts on Hospitality
The hospitality industry experiences a significant transformation during major sports events. Hotels, restaurants, and other service providers prepare extensively to cater to the surge in demand.
Staffing and Training
Hoteliers need to anticipate the surge in demand and ensure they have sufficient staff to provide exceptional service. This may involve hiring and training additional personnel, as well as implementing cross-training programs to ensure flexibility and efficiency across various roles.
Partnerships and Collaborations
Establishing strategic partnerships with local businesses, transportation providers, and event organisers can help hoteliers create comprehensive packages and experiences for visitors. These collaborations can lead to cross-promotional opportunities and enhance the overall visitor experience.
Embracing Automation for Elevated Guest Satisfaction
Infor HMS is a comprehensive hospitality management solution designed to enhance the guest experience. In addition to basic front office tasks, Infor HMS provides hoteliers with actionable insights about guests and potential guests, helping them to retain and attract high-value guests, and fueling businesses for their long-term growth. Key features include:
- Flexible Deployment: Multiple deployment options such as on-property, private-cloud hosting, and AWS.
- Detailed guest profiles: Infor HMS centralises all customer data and provides insights supporting the daily tasks of the staff. The system is built to meet the demands of all hotel staff, allowing hotels to create and customise guest-specific packages.
- Intuitive User Experience: Custom-designed screens to support business requirements and strategies. Plus, it allows users to access all the information they need on just one display, significantly improving productivity.
- Mobility: Real-time access to information from mobile devices for both guests and staff. The mobile app makes it easy to control check-in and check-out, housekeeping services, concierge, and lost-and-found tracking functions, as well as maintain communication with guests anytime, anywhere.
Read more: An Overview of Infor Hotel Management Solution (Infor HMS)
Total hotel management with Infor HMS integrations
- Revenue management: The integration with Infor EzRMS (Revenue Management Solution) allows hoteliers to automatically estimate demand for future use of the property’s available rooms, and recommend appropriate selling strategies such as open and close rates, stay controls, open and close room categories, as well as overbooking levels.
- Customer relationship management: One of the most prominent integrations of Infor HMS is with Infor CRM Hospitality, making guest profiling, reservations, and folio data exchange between the two systems possible. Infor CRM adds substantially to the values of each guest stay to the next level as it is capable of tracking guest profile data, reservation data, and revenue spent by category at each property across the enterprise.
- Incident management: HxGN EAM (enterprise asset management) can be integrated with Infor HMS via Infor ION® to assist in tracking guest service requests and providing quick and efficient responses that eventually drive overall guest satisfaction.
- Sundry items management: Hoteliers can simplify the management of sundry items with Infor HMS Sundry – available as an application for mobile devices, integrated into Infor HMS. It covers virtually all sundry items, spanning from toiletries, over-the-counter medications, and snack foods, to gift shop and vending machine performances, giving hotel owners a complete view of their assets.
4. Conclusion
The role of sports in boosting tourism is undeniable. Major sporting events like the UEFA EURO Summer Olympics and FIFA World Cup not only attract millions of visitors but also have lasting positive impacts on the economy and hospitality industry.
By leveraging advanced technologies and innovative solutions, hoteliers can enhance customer satisfaction, manage operations more efficiently, and maximise profits. As the world eagerly awaits these events, host countries continue to prepare for an influx of tourists, ensuring memorable experiences for all.
