Festival coordinators in Windsor-Essex now have data to go by when deciding how to set up and advertise for an event.
The first ever overview of the economic impact of festivals in the region has been made public by the Canada South Festival Network.
Executive Director Rita Ossington says they now know that 11% of Windsor-Essex festival-goers are visitors, which means more focus needs to be put on cross-border tourism. "I would like to see us back to, and these are statistics that came from the Convention and Visitors Bureau some time ago, where we had 18%. Of course we've had SARS and we've had 9/11, where we saw the door shut."
About 30,000 people were surveyed at 25 festivals between the months of May and September over the last six years to collect data for the CSFN report.
The annual economic impact of those summer festivals each year is estimated at up to $6-million. The report also says that most festival-goers hear about events through word of mouth, the newspaper and radio.