FIFA and Matildas team up, assisting Australian economy to score big!

Results on and off the pitch

While the Matildas have been busy scoring wonder goals and taking the FIFA World Cup by storm on the pitch, the mighty Airwallex team has been analysing the financial impacts off the pitch. Our team have estimated that the FIFA Women’s World Cup has assisted a $7.66 billion rise in retail and travel spending.

And if the Matildas make the final or not, we don’t see spending stopping after the final whistle!

The uplift in spend is ‘directly attributable’ to the event, by comparing spending in specific months to the average for that year. Our team also found that $4.63 billion of this spend - almost 60 per cent - is composed of an influx of international spending and foreign exchange. 

This world cup has proven the power of sporting events and the incredible effect they have on the local economy, bringing in spending from across the globe and Australia and New Zealand:

⚽ $7.66 billion boost in travel and retail spending.

⚽ $4.53 billion of this from overseas visitors.

⚽ 40% of this spending comes from domestic Australian customers.

⚽ 1 in 5 ticket holders are from overseas.

Commentary

Airwallex General Manager Luke Latham provided commentary;

“Dollars, pounds, yen, euros, pesos and dinar are pouring into Australia’s travel and retail sectors to the tune of an extra $7.66 billion thanks to the Matildas and the World Cup.

The Women’s World Cup teams are drawing record crowds and they’re also drawing record spending in our hotels and retail stores.

In the current environment, this has been a screamer of a goal for the Australian and Kiwi economy.”

Backing businesses to succeed

The world game is living up to its name with our tracker showing international visitors have so far spent an extra $4.53 billion at Australian hotels and retailers, and if anything it’s put a spotlight on the way Aussie and Kiwi businesses are thinking about their ‘game-management’ in facilitating these payments.

We’re also seeing Australian businesses act smarter about how they attract international travellers by using digital products like ours to take payments from customers around the world in their local currencies.

Australian businesses are world leaders when it comes to going global to chase new markets, but right now the globe is coming to us and our travel and retail sectors are using the latest payments technology to make the most of the boost.

Mr Latham took his final shot on goal saying,

“If the Australian team make it through the final, I think we can safely say that the ‘Matildas Magic’ is going to keep working on our economy.”

Spending volumes by state

When tickets went on sale, travel spending jumped $565.32m for Oct 2022 compared to the average. In fact, it spiked $42.04m on the day sales went live! That’s a 46% increase in an average month or a 91% increase for an average day.

FIFA has previously said that 1/5 of ticket holders are from overseas, and this shows big volumes of spending.

Good luck Matildas 🇦🇺

You can watch Mr Latham's full interview here:

The entire team at Airwallex wish the Matildas the best of luck for the next stage, and regardless of the result, this has definitely been the goal of the season for our economy! 

Data has been generated using a representative sample of Airwallex customer turnover.