 Dietmar Gessner, a reporter for the German weekly, Sport Bild, pointed out that PyeongChang has merits in its 2018 Winter Games bid as South Korea has emerged as a potential market for growth in winter sports. He also said Munich is relying on its world-class reputation, among the three candidate cities ― the third of which is Annecy, France. / Korea Times photo by Yoon Chul |
PYEONGCHANG, Gangwon Province ― A foreign journalist said Friday that PyeongChang has strong merits in terms of ``potential for market growth’’ in the international sports arena.
German reporter Dietmar Gessner, who works for the weekly Sport Bild, one of the largest magazines in Germany, said he was confident that Korea was becoming a huge market in sports.
“After attending the presentations here, I could confirm that Korea is emerging as a major sports market,” Gessner told The Korea Times at the Convention Center in the Alpensia Resort.
“In Asia including Korea you can create more customers. You can make lots of money for winter sports. But in Europe, this is not the case anymore. There are world class facilities (in PyeongChang) that can meet the demands of a growing market. This is a very strong point for PyeongChang,” added Gessner.
In a presentation on political and economic issues, Seoul National University professor Park Won-ho said Korea and Asia are emerging markets equipped with middle class people who will be “consumers” of winter sports. For instance, from 1990 to 2008, spending on the sports increased $1.7 trillion each year in Asia. Should such a trend of consumption continue it will reach $32 trillion this year, accounting for 43 percent of world’s total.
“Because I think within the IOC they are encouraging PyeongChang to bid again and again. I think PyeongChang has done very good work on its reputation inside the Olympic family. (I think) Everyone is very impressed the way of bid with professionalism,” Gessner said.
Regarding Munich’s bid he said that its strength lies in the leadership of two-time Olympic champion Katarina Witt on the back of the city’s reputation.
“She is pretty famous in the world sports arena with quite good look. The Munich bid started not so good. But now is definitely on track because Witt pushed it,” Gessner said.
“She is very closely connected with the IOC membership and she knows delegates a little bit,” Gessner added.
