What's the Largest Sporting Event in the World and How Many People Travel to Watch Sports?

What makes sports such a big travel opportunity and why do people travel to watch their favorite sports teams? How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect the Tokyo 2020 Olympics?

My People,

How are you doing? Are you staying safe in these streets, with the new COVID-19 Delta variant? I’m wishing you safe health and lots of joy.

Some of you pre-ordered our large kids Map of Africa puzzle last week and I am so thankful. We still have the early-bird price available and it would bring me so much joy to see 1,000 orders come in before we close this. It is $25 or £18 or 31 CAD (click here) if you live in the US, UK or Canada and it is 13,000 Naira (click here) if you live in Nigeria. This puzzle is fun and colorful and is large enough for many kids to play at home or at school, while learning about the amazing continent of Africa. Soon, you’ll be able to do more than just play a puzzle because we will have our website full of travel deals to all the countries in Africa, as well as Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Everest Base Camp, the Olympics, the World Cup, and so much more!

In fact, if you tell us what you want here, we will design it for you for the World Cup in Qatar, 2022. Fill this short questionnaire out so that we can design the perfect World Cup package for you!

Now, to the question of the day: ‘what’s the largest sporting event in the world and how many people travel to watch it?’

Folks, the answer may surprise you.

The most watched sporting event in the world is the FIFA World Cup. According to Statista, In 2018, the World Cup reached an attendance of 3,031,768 people in Russia. This was less than the 3,441,450 people who attended Brazil 2014, the 3,167,984 people who attended South Africa 2010 and the 3,367,000 people who attended Germany 2006. Many more millions watch the Football World Cup each year. “According to FIFA, the 2018 World Cup final between France and Croatia reached an average live audience of 517 million viewers, with more than than 1.1 billion people tuning in over its 90 minutes.” - Statista.

Wondering which countries have the largest number of spectators travelling to see the FIFA World Cup?

Football is not all that’s popular. In fact, the most attended sporting event in the world is Tour de France with 12-15 million spectators spread out across the duration of the event. And the multi-sport Summer Olympics bring millions to the host country every 4 years.

Japanese National Tourism Organisation, 2019

The just-concluded Tokyo Olympics was expected to attract 40 million visitors to Japan in 2020. This expected number of visitors was not far-fetched at all given, that in 2018, Japan had over 31 million visitors. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, foreign spectators were banned from attendance and 11,000 athletes performed in empty stadiums. Let’s see what happens at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics.

For many people, the next upcoming big sporting event is the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. This event will hold in Qatar from the 21st of November to the 18th of December, 2022. I’m looking forward to this experience and I bet you are too. If you’d like to attend this event, tell us exactly what you need here and we will create the perfect package for you.

So, tell me:

1. Have you attended any sporting events before? If so, which ones?

2. Do you plan to attend the World Cup in Qatar next year?

3. Have you ordered the Fill in the Map large Africa puzzle game for kids? I’m looking forward to your order.

Before you go, please share this newsletter with other curious minds. There’s something pretty cool to discover every week!

Love,
Funmi!