The Economic Impact of Cultural Events

Abstract

The artistic and cultural activities have not only a key cultural and social value, but also an undeniable economic impact. Indeed, it is a fact that the cultural sector represents a productive branch which is growing in importance. The cultural factor is frequently used as a key element for regional and/or economic development. In this vein, this article aims to estimate the economic impact of Salamanca 2002 as the European Capital of Culture, using the methodology provided by the impact studies in two stages: first, through estimating private spending generated by the event's cultural tourism; and second, through calculating the overall economic impact, including the private spending on cultural consumption, public spending directly related to the cultural programme, investment in new equipment and facilities, along with the estimate of the multiplying effects on the overall regional and national economies.

European Capitals of Culture and life satisfaction

“…A few papers exist that focus on the economic impact of the event in a specific town or region, but only a limited number of studies more critically evaluate a whole range of ECOC (Mittag, 2008 Herrero et al, 2006).…”

European capital of culture: residents' perception of social benefits and costs – Maribor 2012 case study

“…The city was European capital of culture in 2001. Herrero et al (2006) discussed that European capital of culture represents an event of remarkable importance as city nomination makes headlines on national and European level, so that cities and countries compete for this designation, with the aim of confirming their cultural image and their position on European (tourist) map. Herrero et al (2006) stated that economic return on the medium and long run of city nomination is of great importance.…”

“…The event management generally implies the shared participation of several official bodies (institutions) and private economic agents, with interesting experiences of the business sponsorship context and the civil society's participation via voluntary-service organizations. Along with the creation of diverse and wide-ranging cultural program there is a need for an effort in creating new cultural facilities, urban redesign, tourist infrastructure and communications in the city (Herrero et al 2006). Richards (2000) stated that economic investment in the event has grown significantly since the event began, and particularly since 1990.…”

“…While there are a number of studies regarding the economic impact of cultural events on host communities (Anderson and Solberg 1999;Dwyer et al 2000;Richards 2000;Herrero et al 2006;Jackson et al 2005;Dwyer, Forsyth and Spurr 2005;Dwyer, Forsyth and Spurr 2006), there is a small number of studies which focus on the social, cultural, and/or political impacts of events.…”

“…They are being used more and more as a medium of urban transformation and as an element to attract economic activities, new residents (Herrero et al 2006) and tourists. Cultural industry is a new form of economic activities, which has attracted much attention during the past years.…”