As people across the globe are eagerly waiting for the forthcoming Olympic Games, an animated debate about what kind of income they might bring to the host city or the host country emerges. Infrastructure, tourism, and marketing are major areas where huge investments (billions of dollars) have been made by the organizers of Olympic Games and it is also claimed as the driving force of economic growth and development since the ancient times.
As Tokyo is about to welcome the Summer Olympics, it has tended to made conscientious allocations of sizable budgets for the infrastructure improvement of venues, transportation and accommodations in a bid to ensure there is a ready environment for the sporting event. Despite the challenges raised by the COVID-19 pandemic, event organizers are still hopeful that the Games’ economic benefits could manifest in terms of tourism revenues increased, job creation, and international exposure.
The Olympics deadline is a chance for the selected city to exhibit its heritage, hospitality, and fashion to a worldwide audience, namely, the people arrived from different countries that converge in the area and increase spending in the nearby local businesses. There again, athletes, officials, and spectators migrating for the competition makes the capital economy benefit from sims, restaurants, transportation, as well as merchandise business.
On the other hand, the economic influence of the Olympics can much differ from wider range of factors such as bearing the expense of infrastructure, ensuring security and having utilities in the post-games era. Critics raises a debate that construction projects and short term savings sometimes result in long term fiscal problem, when host cities should deal with expensive infrastructure repair and the issues of overspending.
Despite the uncertainties, for many host cities the Olympics either become a road to revitalization of urban areas, enhancement of the infrastructure, a boost to tourism and the investment patterns. Considerate planning and a well built investment approach, the upcoming Olympics which won’t leave a negative mark of poverty and culture disintegration will be possible. The closer we come to the Games, the more magnifying lens we will be using on Tokyo to find out how the enormous responsibility of both oportunities and disturbances will be dealt with.
