ABSTRACT
One type of benefit that communities may derive from a special event involves the economic boost from the additional spending activity that is created due to the event. The measurement of this positive economic effect, called economic impact analysis, is an exercise that is particularly important whenever the staging of such events involves resource costs to the communities. Other effects, such as increased positive exposure to the city, may be equally or more important as benefits to the community from an event, but they are much harder to estimate than economic impact measurement. As such, measures of economic impact often become the focal point in any discussion of the merits of staging such events. Therefore, it is imperative that such measurement be as accurate as possible, and a credible estimate often means being modest or even conservative in calculating economic impact.
