Matildas fever: World Cup brings $7.66bn uplift, Airwallex says

The spending can be ‘directly linked’ to the World Cup, a financial infrastructure platform says. The competition has already seen record attendance and viewership.

The spending can be “directly linked” to the World Cup, a financial infrastructure platform says. The competition has already seen record attendance and viewership. Picture: Fred Lee / Getty Images

The Women’s World Cup has seen a $7.66bn rise in travel and retail spending, according to financial infrastructure platform Airwallex.

The platform says the uplift is “directly linked” to the event, by comparing consumer spending in specific months to the average for that year.

The company found that $4.53bn of that $7.66bn – almost 60 per cent – is attributable to travellers and foreign exchange.

NSW and Victorian businesses have seen the lion’s share of benefit, with $2.98bn and $2.3bn going to them respectively.

The research estimates Queensland has seen $1.55bn, Western Australia at $663.2m, and South Australia at $160.9m.

 

“In the current environment this has been a screamer of a goal for the Australian economy,” Airwallex ANZ general manager Luke Latham said.

“The world game is living up to its name with our tracker showing international visitors have so far spent an extra $4.53bn at Australian hotels and retailers.”

The Women’s World Cup has attracted record viewership and attendance. Channel 7 recently announced that the Matildas’ round of 16, 2-0 victory over Denmark drew 3.6 million viewers, “making it the no. 1 show of the year”. It beat out other Australian sporting touchstones such as the 2022 NRL grand final and all three State of Origin matches.

Football Australia chief executive James Johnson recently said the World Cup was a “milestone” and said the tournament had sold over 1.7 million tickets, beating FIFA’s original sales target and its upgraded one.

“When we bid to host, we promised FIFA that we would co-host the biggest and best-ever edition of the tournament, and that is what we have seen so far,” he said. “Today, football is at the centre of every city and town across the country; attendance records have been set in Australia with an average of over 30,000 for each match, and new broadcast records … set.”