Why measure travel impacts?
Quite often those involved in managing and holding an event tend to focus on reducing the direct environmental impact of their activities, such as energy use or waste. However, an increasing number of studies have found that visitor travel to and from an event can have one of the most significant impacts.
The scale of impact will depend not only on the number of visitors and the distance they travel, but also the method of travel and vehicle occupancy. If the event is held over several days, visitors may stay in nearby overnight accommodation, and so will need to travel between their accommodation and the event site. The geographical location of an event can influence how visitors travel to an event, and also the environmental impact.
The environmental impact of event travel can be measured using a survey of visitors during an event, or following an event (i.e. online). Some event organisers collect visitor postcode data as part of their online ticket purchasing system. While this can provide information on where visitors have travelled from, it will need to be supplemented with data on method of travel.