Eugene, OR - World Athletics Championships Oregon22, an international track and field event hosted over 10 days in July at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon, has received two distinguished sports tourism awards. The awards include the mid-market Champions of Economic Impact in Sports Tourism award from Sports Destination Management magazine and the Best Professional Event award from SportsTravel magazine.
Sports Destination Management magazine’s annual Champions of Economic Impact in Sports Tourism awards recognize successful events that have made an outstanding economic impact in the host destination. While official statewide numbers are forthcoming from World Athletics, the estimated economic impact of the event to the Eugene-Springfield metro area alone exceeded $50 million. The University of Oregon, Travel Oregon and Travel Lane County were all recognized for their contributions in support of the event.
SportsTravel Magazine announced the winners of the 2022 SportsTravel Awards during the TEAMS ’22 Conference & Expo last month in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, that honored the best events, venue and host city in the sports-event industry. TEAMS: Travel, Events And Management in Sports, is the world’s largest gathering of event organizers and travel planners from the sports industry. World Athletics Council member Willie Banks accepted the Best Professional Event award during the awards luncheon.
The World Athletics Championships Oregon22 brought over 1,700 athletes from 179 countries to the Eugene-Springfield metro area. The event is normally hosted in world capital cities like London, Paris, Berlin, Beijing and Tokyo. There were 146,033 tickets sold for the event and tickets were sold to people from all 50 states and nearly 40 countries. Room nights derived from the event in the Eugene-Springfield metro area exceeded 110,000, not including the other fans, media, officials and delegates that stayed outside of traditional hotels. The combined television and streaming audiences were estimated at one billion.
“Hosting a global championship event is a great honor, and a significant responsibility,” said Kari Westlund, CEO of Travel Lane County, the parent corporation of Eugene, Cascades & Coast Sports Commission. “We are grateful for the opportunity and thrilled at the success of the event and the recognition that both the event and our destination have received.”
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For more information on the success of the World Athletics Championships Oregon22, visit our website.
