What are the Advanced Impacts?

• Total Economic Impact of an Event

Overview & Considerations

Advanced Economic Impacts primarily involve making judgements about longer-term economic activity, or economic decisions that people may or may not have made were it not for the event taking place. In other words, there is an increasingly high level of complexity involved in making a robust link between the event and the stated impact.

The Total Economic Impact builds on the calculation made in the Intermediate Impacts section which determined the Direct Economic Impact. Whereas the Direct Economic Impact assesses additional 'first-round' spending resulting from an event (eg a direct transaction between say a visitor and a local restaurant), the Direct Economic Impact seeks to capture the knock-on benefits to the host economy (eg the additional money spent in the local area by that restaurant as a result of the increased business).

Other economic impact considerations for larger events have been referenced. These introduce concepts such as displacement and import substitution which are generally felt to be more applicable to the very largest scale international events.

Routes to Measurement

The most common way in which the calculation of Total Economic Impact is made is to take the Direct Economic Impact and apply a ‘multiplier’. The application of the multiplier, once determined, is a straightforward process, but the data and analysis required to calculate an accurate multiplier can be extremely difficult and require the study of complex economic interrelations within a defined geographical area. This is the reason why Total Economic Impact has been listed as an Advanced Impact.

In practice, these Advanced Measurements will need to be handled by professional companies or research bodies that are skilled in working with complex economic data.