MOUNT VERNON — The 2009 Dan Emmett Music and Arts Festival had a $500,000 impact on the local economy according to a report recently issued by festival director Pat Crow. This figure came from adding direct festival expenditures to estimates of visitor expenditures and indirect/induced expenditures.
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“The direct figures are all empirical,” Crow said, adding that the estimates were conservative figures based upon standard tourism marketing formulas.
The direct local expenditures category totals expenditures made which directly involve the festival. The report shows that $15,200 was spent locally on supplies such as banners, portable toilets, office supplies, contractors, security and so forth. A total of $10,500 was paid to area media for advertising, while local entertainers and groups were paid $8,400. Also included in this category are the sales of festival vendors, artists and crafters, most of whom are from the area. These figures, totaling $66,700, were calculated from commissions and booth fees paid to the festival. The sum of these direct expenditures was $100,800.
Out-of-county visitors were estimated to have spent $80,000 during the festival. This number was derived from estimating 5,000 out-of-county visitors spending an average of $10 per day (based on data collected by the Knox County Convention and Visitors Bureau) during a one-day visit, as well as 200 people spending $150 by staying for a longer period of time.
Local festival visitors were estimated to number 15,000, spending an average of $8 each, again based on CVB data, totaling $200,000. The total of direct expenses and visitor expenditures is $300,800.
Using statistical analysis of the above numbers, Crow derived resulting indirect and induced expenditures, too. Tourism industry experts calculate that indirect expenditures, such as income to hotels, stores and gas stations, amounts to one-third of the total event income. Thus the report estimates $100,300 in indirect expenditures. Induced expenditures, calculated with the same ratio, are the expenditures made possible by the indirect expenditures. In other words, these are expenditures made by the employees of the companies who received business from festival attendees. This is likewise estimated at $100,300. Indirect and induced expenditures together total $200,600.
The grand total of all direct, indirect and induced expenses is $501,400.
