NRPA Measuring Impact of Park & Rec

57 Measuring the Economic Impact of Park and Recreation Services www.NRPA.org National Recreation and Park Association © 2010 All Rights Reserved Chapter 6 Principles Illustrated in Results from a Selection of Park and Recreation Economic Impact Studies During the past decade, the author’s research teams have undertaken numerous economic impact studies at (1) sports tournaments, (2) special events, (3) recreation facilities, and (4) park facilities. This chapter reviews findings from a selection of studies in each of those four areas. The intent is to identify patterns in these results that illustrate generalizable principles. Researchers will be quick to point out that the per person expenditures reported in these studies are likely to differ from those obtained in studies undertaken at similar events or facilities elsewhere, because most of the studies reported here were done in Texas; limited resources meant that often non-probability samples had to be used; and the contexts of each event and facility were different: Unique factors include the geographic proximity of the participating teams to the host site, novelty of the destination for spectators and participants, the size of the sport venue, the location of the sport venue, the location of the sport venue to the business district, the level of supporting infrastructure in the host community, changes in the format of the event (e.g., amount of rest between matches), and time between qualifying tournaments and the championship tournament. The shorter the time, the less opportunity for sport tourists to plan their trip. The amount of positive or negative media attention, promotional budget, weather, and accessibility also play a factor in the economic impact outcomes. (Delpy and Li, 1998). Notwithstanding these reservations, in contexts and communities where managers have no empirical data but are required by stakeholders to provide estimates of visitors’ expenditures and economic impact, or need such estimates to help reposition their agency, the results from these case studies suggest useful parameters for providing “intelligent guesses.” Beyond the basic utility of providing data for intelligent guesses of visitor expenditures, there are pat- terns in these results that offer guidance to park and recreation managers on economic impact issues. Sports Tournaments Exhibit 6-1 , p. 58, reports the expenditures of participants in 14 sports tournaments held in College Station, Texas. The following points emerged: 1. In all cases, the data were collected on-site in personal interviews. However, for junior events, the participants’ parents/coaches were interviewed rather than the athletes because they were responsible for making the expenditures. 2. The proportion of participants who were from the local area was less than 5% in every tournament and in some it was zero. 3. Economic impact is likely to be a function of both number of non-local participants and length of stay. Thus, the largest expenditures in Exhibit 6-1 were at events 11 and 6 where the modal lengths of stay were 6 and 4 nights, respectively. 4. If an overnight stay is not required, then the economic impact on the community is likely small. Some participants in some of the events in Exhibit 6-1 elected to commute and their spending was much lower. This accounts for the big difference between per day and per night expenditures,