By James Dixon
On July 6, 2011, PyeongChang was announced as the host city for the 2018 Winter Olympics. It will be the first Winter Games in Asia since the 1998 Games in Nagano, Japan. After 10 long years of preparation and two previous failed attempts for 2010 and 2014, PyeongChang beat out two of Europe’s strongest winter sport nations, Germany and France, with 65 votes against Munich’s 25 and Annecy’s seven votes. PyeongChang has finally accomplished long-held ambitions to host the Winter Games.
The history of the Olympics begins with co-founder Pierre de Coubertin who said, “May joy and good fellowship reign, and in this manner, may the Olympic Torch pursue its way through the ages, increasing friendly understanding among nations, for the good of a humanity always more enthusiastic, more courageous and more pure.”
As Pierre de Coubertin hoped, the Olympic Games began to foster international communication and peace. In 1896, the modern-day Olympics were revived in Greece, spreading throughout the globe.
Now the Olympics make up the biggest global sports event, attracting a huge number of visitors from all over the world. From 241 participants representing 14 nations in 1896, the Games grew to have about 10,500 competitors from 204 countries at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Viewership increased exponentially from the 1960’s to the end of the century. The 2008 Beijing Olympics set a new record as the most-watched Olympic Games, with a viewership of over 4.7 billion people around the world. In comparison, the Beijing Olympics had a 21 percent higher viewership than the 2004 Athens Olympics and a 31 percent higher viewership than the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The number of people who watched the Beijing Olympics makes up 70 percent of the world’s population. Hence, two out every three people in the world watched the Olympics in 2008.
With the growing popularity of the Olympics, hosting the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics is another notch on the country’s global status belt, especially after hosting the G20 Economic Summit last fall. Hosting the 2018 Winter Olympics has become a point of national pride for South Korea, a country that has also hosted the 1988 Seoul Olympics and co-hosted the 2002 World Cup soccer finals.
The 2018 Winter Olympics will bring several significant benefits to PyeongChang and South Korea, including an economic boom, a stronger national image, the promotion of winter sports in Korea and an increase in tourism.
Last year at the Vancouver Olympics, nearly $5.2 million was spent on Visa cards on the opening day of the Games in British Columbia. The money spent by visitors on their Visa credit, debit and prepaid cards on Friday, February 12, 2010, showed an increase of 46 percent over the same day the prior year.
For the upcoming Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, there are even higher expectations for boosts in economic growth through increased investments and tourism revenue. The Hyundai Research Institute (HRI) predicts that the PyeongChang Olympics will generate 21.1 trillion won directly for South Korea’s economy, with another 43.8 trillion won in investment, tourism and branding following in the ten years after.
The Korea Institute for International Economic Policy predicts that the PyeongChang Olympics will also create as many as 230,000 jobs. The amount is twice that of the 2002 World Cup and five times greater than that for the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
In addition, the Presidential Council on National Branding (PCNB) aims to lift South Korea’s national brand image to the world’s top 10 with the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. The PCNB also hopes to develop more top-class athletes and to further promote sports.
The 2018 Winter Olympics will be held under the slogan, “New Horizons,” which signifies how the games in PyeongChang will help to promote winter sports across the continent. The slogan represents a new stage (unmatched potential for growth in winter sports across Asia), a new generation (there are 650 million youths throughout Asia) and new possibilities (for millions of new fans, participants and consumers of winter sports). This vision for the Winter Games will help to spread the positive messages and values of Olympic spirit across the region.
Since 1986, Visa has been a proud Worldwide Sponsor of the Olympic Games. Visa celebrated its 25th anniversary as a TOP sponsor of the Olympic Games on July 11, 2011. Visa will be the exclusive payment services sponsor and the only card accepted at Games venues through 2020, including the London 2012 Olympic Games, the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang and the 2020 Olympic Summer Games.
For the upcoming London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Visa will support more than 50 individual athletes including Olympic gold medalists Mi-Ran Jang (South Korea), Yelena Isinbaeva (Russia) and Michael Phelps (USA) along with national teams from more than 20 countries.
Visa is currently working hard to prepare for the PyeongChang Games and is excited to be part of such a significant event. We hope to see you in 2018 at the Winter Olympics!