What are the Intermediate Impacts?

• Direct Economic Impact of an Event

The Direct Economic Impact is a measure of the total amount of additional expenditure within a defined geographical area, which can be directly attributed to staging an event. Based on visitor and organiser spending, Direct Ecomic Impact is an assessment of the net increase in spending as a result of the event.

Importantly, Direct Economic Impact measures what is sometimes called the 'first round' of spending. In basic terms, this means direct transactions between those outside the host economy and those inside the host economy - for example between a visitor and the owner of a local restaurant.

Many event organisers and funders also wish to capture the Total Economic Impact. This step is designed to make adjustments to the Direct Economic Impact to capture the subsequent 'secondary impacts' of additional spending within the host economy. Effective calculation of the Total Economic Impact requires previous studies to have been carried out which analyse detailed interactions and interdependencies within the host economy itself. For this reason, the Total Economic Impact is dealt with in the Advanced Economic Impacts section.

This section also includes guidance on moving towards a more standardised reporting protocol for economic impact, both in terms of researchers' reporting to clients around economic impact, and public sector bodies' reporting of headline impact figures in public.

Routes to Measurement

There is broad consensus on the standard approach to measuring the economic impact of an event. The spending patterns of event attendees are sampled, averaged and then upscaled to the overall 'event population'. This is typically combined with an assessment of the net spending in the host economy by the event organiser to determine the Direct Economic Impact. This process typically requires some primary research in the form of surveying event attendees to evaluate peoples' spending patterns at the event. Whilst not excessively complex or longitudinal in nature, this research is normally best carried out by a specialist contractor.

Within this basic approach however, there is the potential for diverging results based on different interpretations of the stages within the process. There can be varying approaches to: defining the host economy, surveying and sampling parameters, treatment of local residents, measuring economic flows in and out of the host economy, and the application of multipliers (which is covered in Advanced Economic Impacts). Arguably the biggest scope for error is in upscaling visitor spending patterns to an inaccurate event population - a factor which highlights the importance of securing accurate attendance data.

The resources in the section below explain each stage involved in calculating the Direct Economic Impact of an event. An online Calculator has been included so that organisers can forecast the approximate scale of economic impact of their event, based on achieving certain numbers.