Are arts events a good way of augmenting the economic impact of sports? The case of the 2010 Soccer World Cup and the National Arts Festival in South Africa

Despite the debate about whether arts consumers are also sports consumers, many countries have used cultural events to leverage further tourism spending from sports events, the most famous example being the cultural Olympics. This paper reports the findings of research conducted at the 2010 South African National Arts Festival, which was specifically timed to coincide with Soccer World Cup matches being played in a nearby city. Of the 600 interviews conducted with Festival-goers, only 23% reported also attending World Cup soccer matches. Regression analysis revealed that, while there is some overlap between arts and sports attendees, their demographics and consumption habits are significantly different. However, consumption outside of major events showed somewhat more overlap. This suggests that staging cultural events at the same time as major sporting events is not an ideal strategy, since they tend to compete with, rather than complement, each other.