Supporters of mega-sporting events such as the World Cup and Olympics claim that these events attract hoards of wealthy visitors and lead to lasting economic benefits for the host regions. For this reason, cities and countries compete vigorously for the right to stage these spectacles. Recently,...

Hosting a major international sporting event is a costly affair for the organizing country. Growth in tourism is often cited as one of the economic benefits, which should allow the host to earn back these costs. In this paper we use monthly country-by-country arrival data to assess the impact of...