IBU World Cup Oberhof 2023
Fascination Biathlon – Germans indulge the No. 1 winter sport not only in front of the TV.
The “International Biathlon Union” (IBU) strives to make its business and activities sustainable in all dimensions: ecological, social and economic.
The goal is to establish biathlon as the leading sport promoting sustainability by 2026.
Margit Eidenhammer, IBU Head of Finance and Administration
(Xing, 2023)
“The analysis results of the Invenium Data Insights have a very high importance for the organization. On the one hand, the insights enable marketing measures to be set and monitored in a more targeted manner, and on the other hand, the insights support us in implementing the IBU sustainability strategy.”
Together with IBU, Invenium Data Insights analyzed three events of the 2022/2023 season, including the events in Hochfilzen, Austria (08-12.12.2022), Ruhpolding, Bavaria (11.01.-15.01.2023) and as a highlight the Biathlon World Cup in Oberhof, Thuringia (08.02.-19.02.2023) regarding the number of visitors, their socio-demographics, arrival and departure behavior in connection with their origin. The gained insights will be used for future projects to optimize events and to efficiently implement the IBU sustainability strategy.
The World Championships in Oberhof lead the overall statistics with more than 150,000 total visitors and almost 17,000 day visitors. Followed by Ruhpolding with about 16,000 visitors per day. Even though Hochfilzen had “only” 7,000 visitors per competition day on average, the international visitor rate of more than 40% is really outstanding. The visitor rate of 26% from Germany confirms the importance of the biathlon in the country. Norwegian guests also like to come to the biathlon events in Germany, especially to Ruhpolding.
In general, the male fan base continues to dominate. Oberhof recorded the highest proportion of women with around 45%. The dominant age group at all venues was 50-59 years (25-30%).
At the World Championships in Oberhof, the catchment area of the visitors was the largest (80% traveled within a radius of 57 km to the competitions), as well as the longest average stay per competition day (5h 20m). Many of the visitors traveled by train, especially in Hochfilzen there was a significant increase of train travelers on the weekends.
Some dedicated fans took long distances to see the biathlon stars live at the track – from Handewitt to Oberhof fans traveled 580 km, from Heist to Ruhpolding 940 km and from Nickelsdorf to Hochfilzen 440 km.
