Economic impact of Winter Olympics to top 20 tln won

SEOUL, July 7 (Yonhap) -- The economic impact of South Korea's hosting the 2018 Winter Olympics is expected to top 20 trillion won (US$18.7 billion) and fuel infrastructure building and the local tourism industry, local think tanks said Thursday. The state-run Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade (KIET) said that PyeongChang's hosting the winter games will likely lead to the direct production-inducing effect of just under 20.5 trillion won, or more than twice the economic benefits reaped by the 2002 FIFA World Cup. The institute estimated that the sports event will induce 8.7 trillion won in value-added benefits for the entire country, with 230,000 more jobs to be created. Gangwon Province, which is home to PyeongChang, is expected to experience a production gain of more than 11.6 trillion won. KIET said that the construction, airline, lodging and hospitality industries will benefit the most. The estimate was shared by Hyundai Research Institute (HRI), a leading private think tank, that calculated that positive effects caused by investment will reach 16.4 trillion won, with tourism, consumption likely to rise an additional 4.7 trillion won. The institute, in addition, said that indirect benefits from hosting the Olympics will be good for the economy as a whole. "The PyeongChang games will upgrade the country's image abroad that can help promote the brand image of local companies and products," the HRI said. "PyeongChang could boost overall tourism by over 32.2 trillion won in the next decade." A model that South Korea can emulate is the boom that the 1972 Olympics had on Sapporo, the private institute said. The rural Japanese city was not well know before the games. But with the influx of tourists during the games, it has gained fame and currently holds the annual Sapporo Snow Festival that attracts millions of people from all over the world. Related to the potential boom in tourism, the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute said the PyeongChang games will have a production and value-added inducing effect on local tourism business equal to 668.4 billion and 279.9 billion, and help create 9,000 more related jobs. Samsung Economic Research Institute (SERI), which is part of the Samsung Group, meanwhile, estimated that hosting the Olympics will be equivalent to 321.0 billion won in positive advertisement for South Korean companies down the road, and contribute about 10 trillion won to domestic consumption and exports. "The various effects of hosting the Winter Games will be felt before and after the event for a long period of time," said Lee Dong-hun, a SERI senior research. He, however, stressed that there is a need to guard against overinvestment and mistakes in the management, since some host cities such as Albertville, France and Nagano, Japan experienced serious problems after the games were held.