NRPA Measuring Impact of Park & Rec

35 Measuring the Economic Impact of Park and Recreation Services www.NRPA.org National Recreation and Park Association © 2010 All Rights Reserved incremental expenditures on those extra days should be included in the economic impact analysis. This information is captured in questions 7a and 7b. 8. Would you have come to (Name of City) in the next three months if you had not come at this time for this event? Yes No Question 8 is designed to identify time-switchers. Those who respond “yes” changed the timing of an intended visit to the community to coincide with the event. They will be omitted from the analysis because their spending in the community cannot be attributed to the event because it would have occurred without the event, albeit at a different time of the year. Experience has shown that the proportion of players at a sports tournament who planned to come to the community at another time is negligible. Thus, the questionnaire used in the economic impact studies of sports tournaments consists only of the first six questions and the latter three are omitted. 9. Circle the number that best describes how important this (facility/event) was in your decision to visit (Name of City) on this trip, where 0 indicates no influence and 10 indicates this (facility/event) is the main single reason for visiting (Name of City) on this trip. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 The proportion of spending that is attributable to the facility or event is based on responses to this question. For example, if a respondent reports the facility/event had “0” influence on the decision to visit the community, then the economic impact would be zero. If he or she indicated a score of 6, then 60% of the spending in the community would be attributable to the event. It is recognized that such estimates of proportionality are subjective and subject to errors. However, they are likely to be more accurate than the standard assumption that 100% of visitors’ expenditures are attributable to the events. This process distinguishes between general economic impact from tourists to a community and the economic impacts attributable to a specific park and recreation event or facility. ↑ My only reason for coming to the area. ↑ Half of my reason for coming to the area. ↑ None: I would have come to the area anyway