MAJOR sporting events are helping to establish Bendigo as one of the top players in the Victorian tourism industry.
January has been a bumper month on the sporting calendar in Bendigo, with several major sporting events helping to significantly boost the city’s economy.
Since the calendar ticked over to 2012, Bendigo has hosted the: Victorian Country Athletics Championships; Victorian Country Long Course Swimming Championships; annual Country Week cricket carnival; Victorian Agricultural Show Saddlehorse Championships; and Bendigo Pacing Cup; while the Bendigo Junior Classic basketball tournament finishes today.
The City of Greater Bendigo estimates those sporting events have brought more than 10,000 people to Bendigo and injected at least $2 million into the city’s coffers.
“It’s a very difficult thing to quantify, but conservatively we can assume somewhere in the order of $2 million would have been injected as a result of these sporting events that have been held in Bendigo in January,” council’s director of city futures Stan Liacos said yesterday.
“A local community event is fantastic for community spirit, but what these big events such as the swimming and basketball do is provide significant economic yield.
“You look at money spent on accommodation, restaurants, pubs, petrol stations and supermarkets... there’s a constant presence of additional economical spend within our community with such events.
“I would say that our sporting events alone would easily bring at least $5 million each year into our economy.”
However, the benefits of Bendigo hosting such major sporting events as those this month aren’t just economical.
“The intangible benefit, which is harder to measure, is that these events expose beautiful Bendigo to so many people, which sends the promotional message,” Liacos said.
“Usually, the vast majority of people leave Bendigo with a very positive impression, which ultimately repays with increased tourism and investment over the medium and long-term.
“We’re very fortunate here in Bendigo that we have top-quality regional sporting facilities.
“Organisers don’t bring their event to a place if the facility isn’t up to scratch, so the good thing we have here is the locals get quality facilities, but we also get major events, which is a real win-win.”
The boom in sporting events in Bendigo during January has come during what is normally one of the quieter months of the year.
“If you’re talking about 10,000 people coming to Bendigo for these sporting events, that’s 10 per cent of our population,” Liacos said.
“And it has come at a good time of the year, because January is traditionally a quieter time of the year for Bendigo with a lot of people heading up the coast or to the river.
“We are no longer a small player in the tourism caper.
“We’re now one of the major tourism regions in Victoria, and sporting events are helping significantly in this regard.”
A BUMPER SPORTING MONTH
Victorian Agricultural Show Saddlehorse Championships at Prince of Wales Showgrounds – held over three days from January 6, the event attracted hundreds of horses and competitors. Many of the state’s best competed, with some of the horses worth between $50,000 and $100,000.
Bendigo Pacing Cup at Lord’s Raceway – despite cool weather, the Bendigo Harness Racing Club’s feature meeting on January 14 attracted the biggest crowd in modern times to see $3.10 favourite Decorated Jasper win the Cup.
Victorian Country Athletics Championships at La Trobe University Bendigo Athletics Complex – athletic clubs from all over the state converged on Bendigo for the three-day carnival from January 13. Eaglehawk YMCA Athletics Club scored 1645.5 points to retain the Margaret Saunders Country Cup.
Bendigo Country Week – the city’s annual cricket carnival has been held since 1934 and was again well supported. The carnival attracted 26 teams competing in five divisions. No doubt, the city’s pubs were one of the big winners during the week.
Victorian Country Long Course Swimming Championships at Bendigo Aquatic Centre – for three days from January 21, Victoria’s best junior swimmers showed their talent at the championships. Swimming Victoria event co-ordinator Simone Hutson described the organisation of the event as “flawless”.
Bendigo Junior Classic basketball tournament – 166 teams and about 1400 players from across the state are competing in the annual tournament, which started Thursday and finishes today.
Games have been played at the Bendigo Stadium, Flora Hill, Girton Grammar and Maiden Gully.
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