Friday, May 26, 2000
Study: Festivals worth millions
11 biggest draw $89 million in spending
By Lucy May
The Cincinnati Enquirer
This weekend's Taste of Cincinnati food fest means more than just crab rolls, sauerkraut balls and cream puffs.
About 540,000 out-of-towners will spend an estimated $89 million at Taste and 10 other big Cincinnati festivals this year, says a new study by the Greater Cincinnati Center for Economic Education at the University of Cincinnati.
By the time that money is re-spent by local businesses, the impact grows to $183 million, the study says.
“Cities are trying to be creative and say, "How do we get people back into the cities?'” says Louis Grossman, editor of Events Business News, the magazine that in 1997 named Taste of Cincinnati “Food Event of the Year.”
Festivals and other tourist magnets are winners because they bring new money into a region without making demands on infrastructure, says Mike McKeon of McKeon and Associates Ltd., a Chicago firm that's studied the impact of such events for more than a decade.
“They come in, they spend their money and they leave, which means you're not building schools, you're not building roads and all that,” he said.
Such events also help promote the region as a fun place to live and do business, says Joe Kramer, vice president of economic development at the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce.
“It's a good chance for us to show off our community,” he said. “When people have fun here, they want to come back or even move businesses here.”
Taste of Cincinnati alone is expected to draw 500,000 local and out-of-town visitors to sample the 175 menu items offered up by area restaurants.
Chef and restaurant owner Henry Warman uses Taste to promote items at Cafe Cin-Cin downtown and to try new things that he adds to the menu.
“Amazingly enough, people will come,” he said. “The impact is immediate.”
“It's one more way of having fun, keeping it fresh,” said Karen Maier, vice president of marketing for Frisch's Big Boy Restaurants. She suggested the first Taste of Cincinnati 21 years ago.
This is the first year for a study on the impact of the summer festivals, so the figures can't be compared to years past.
The figures also don't include the additional 500,000 out-of-town visitors expected for this summer's Big Pig Gig. UC estimates those folks will spend another $82 million.
To do the study, research associate David Bowes took estimates of festival attendance and out-of-town attendance from years past and assumed people coming to town for festivals stay the same number of days and spend the same amount of money as other tourists.
He used spending figures provided by the Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau. Those figures estimate an average stay of between two and three nights with only 19 percent of visitors staying just one day.
Mr. McKeon took issue with that method, saying the best way to gauge economic impact is to survey people who attend the festivals.
Mr. Bowes agreed, but survey information wasn't available, so he used an economic model and estimates instead.
The study was commissioned by the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce and the Partnership for Greater Cincinnati, a coalition of economic development groups from Southwest Ohio, Northern Kentucky and Southeast Indiana that work together to market the Tristate.
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