An economic perspective on special events

Special events are widely recognized as having a tourism impact and frequently form part of the tourism strategy of a country, or a destination region within a country. Governments in Australia and elsewhere have increasingly taken to funding such events as deliberate policies of tourism promotion and economic development. Australian examples are used to frame an approach to the economic evaluation of such policies. The analysis of economic impact of an event needs to identify clearly the region of interest, and the expenditure that is new to the region because of the event. A full evaluation should encompass social and promotional impacts. These are identifiable, but they are difficult to quantify.