The year before the epidemic generated $1.9 billion in revenue, and football such as tourism in England saved its lives

Reporter | Wei Qingchao

Football has always been a magic weapon for the English tourism industry to attract tourists, but the continuation of the new crown epidemic has caused serious losses to the English tourism industry and a large number of football clubs.

Beijing time on October 27, 2021, according to FrontOfficeSports, before the new crown epidemic, football can generate billions of dollars in revenue for the English tourism industry every year. For example, in 2019, overseas tourists watching football games spent a total of US$1.9 billion in the UK.

In the 9 government districts of England, the North West, which is home to the three giants of Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool, is the representative of football to help tourism. North West England receives millions of visitors each year, and in 2019, 18% of visitors to the North West just to watch a football match.

In the same year, 1.5 million overseas visitors visited England, with Manchester United at Home Trafford attracting 226,000, followed by Liverpool's home of Anfield, attracting 213,000. The National Football Museum in Manchester also said that a quarter of the visitors came from overseas.

However, the sudden outbreak of the new crown epidemic has had a huge negative impact on the income of English clubs, especially Premier League clubs, and has also hit the development of local tourism.

Last season's Premier League vacancies resulted in losses of more than £880 million for 20 clubs, with Manchester United, which had been the highest ticket revenue, losing a staggering £140 million.

Despite the huge loss of ticket revenue, Manchester United still maintains the super high salary of the players and the salaries of the club staff, and also spends a lot of money to bring in Sancho and Varane in the new season.

In this case, it is not difficult to understand the return of C Ronaldo, as the most successful club in the Premier League's commercial operation, and C Ronaldo will be united to greatly improve Manchester United's income situation. This is also an important reason why Manchester United is currently facing huge competitive pressure, but still firmly supports Ronaldo.

This season, the Premier League has re-allowed fans to enter, and even chose a certain degree of "lying flat" in terms of epidemic prevention measures - not strictly requiring the wearing of masks and not comprehensively checking the nucleic acid reports of fans entering the stadium, the reason is also that clubs urgently need to ease financial pressure.

According to past data, more than two-thirds of overseas tourists choose to go to England between October and March, which is the most competitive time period in the Premier League. The recovery of the Premier League has played an important role in the rebound of the local tourism industry.

In the face of economic pressure from all sides, the Premier League officials do not have many options for controlling the epidemic. Fortunately, the return of fans has allowed the Premier League to regain its former vitality, and the number of Home Goals scored in the Premier League since the new season has almost doubled compared to last season.

The wonderful "World First League" will once again show its appeal to tourists from all over the world, and England's tourism industry has found a lifesaver.