|
 Sport and Technology looks at how the Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance is harnessing the world's first web-based economic assessment tool to measure the likely success and impact of sports events.
The Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance (CSTA) is a not-for-profit, industry-led, market-driven and research-based organisation that has over 55 municipalities and 30 national sports organising committees across Canada as its members. The Canadian Tourism Commission is a major funding partner through its product club programme. The CSTA's mission is to increase Canadian capacity and competitiveness in hosting national and international sports events. Its goals are to: facilitate communication between the sport and tourism sectors; share 'best practices' approaches to bidding models and processes; gather industry intelligence internationally; ensure the high quality delivery of event management services; build investment from the public and private sectors; and set targets for the future expansion of the industry.
The Canadian Tourism Commission's research division estimates that sport tourism is valued at $0.95bn annually in the country. It is estimated that approximately 200,000 sports events occur annually in Canada, providing significant economic benefits to host communities.
Part of CSTA's strategy has been to develop and launch an events database to facilitate the bidding processes for Canadian cites and regions aiming to host sports events. The events database has been followed by development of the Sport Tourism Economic Assessment Model (STEAM), that claims to be the world's first web-based economic assessment tool to measure the likely success and impact of events.
Says Rick Traer, chief executive officer of CSTA: "As part of the preparation of hosting an event, it is often desirable to conduct an economic impact assessment study in order to estimate the level of economic activity that will be supported by the event. There are two main challenges associated with performing an impact analysis. Firstly, depending on the assumptions made during the preparation of these studies, the estimated impact can vary widely. Secondly, the costs associated with conducting an impact review can be prohibitive for small to medium-sized hosting organisations."
STEAM aims to meets the first criteria, ease of use, because the only information needed to generate results from the model is a basic knowledge of participant and spectator demographics, augmented with information contained in the event's business plan. The second criterion, ease of access, has been met through the hosting of the model on the internet. STEAM is the world's first web-based economic impact model specifically designed for sports events.  Key components
There are two key components of the model that act to standardise the outputs, thereby allowing for a comparability of the economic impacts of different events in different locations across Canada. The first is the use of standardised visitor expenditure profiles, developed with data from both Statistics Canada, and primary data collection conducted by the CSTA. "This includes athletes, coaches and referees as well as spectators," says Traer. The second is the use of a modified version of a model developed by the Canadian Tourism Research Institute, which creates the economic impact estimates from the expenditure inputs.
Average daily expenditures of visitors to sporting events were initially created using Statistics Canada's Canadian Travel Survey. This database allowed for the development of key indicators by which to differentiate the spending of visitors. These measures include the person's role at an event (i.e. spectator, participant and media), the distance they travelled, their age, and their length of stay. Adjustments to the expenditure profile based on these demographic characteristics, as well as the location of the event, allow an estimate to be prepared of visitor spending at an event. The spending estimate is combined with capital and operations expenditures contained in an event's business plan to produce an overall expenditure profile, which is transferred to the economic impact assessment model.  Full STEAM ahead
In order to improve the calibration of STEAM, the CSTA, along with sport and industry partners such as the Canadian Tourism Commission and Sport Canada, has been conducting a series of on-site surveys at key sporting events since 2002. These surveys have been used to refine the assumptions used in calibrating the model as well as to identify the effects of other possible factors, such as the type of sport (e.g. hockey versus athletics) and the type of competition (one day, single location versus multi-day, multi-location). Additionally, they will be used to examine the significance of the economic impact of volunteers. Thus, as more survey results become available, the model will continue to be re-calibrated and the subsequent estimated impact results will more closely reflect those that would have occurred using a full-scale survey-based economic impact assessment.
"You need to be scientific in a bid," says Traer. "What we are doing is creating a model that reflects the objectives of both sport and tourism. Previously it has been impossible to do comparative measurements of events as there was no standardised instrument, whereas STEAM is now being considered a prominent tool." The city of Hamilton accessed the STEAM model and used it to assess the potential economic impact of hosting the 2010 Commonwealth Games before it lost its bid to New Delhi.
In October 2003, Hamilton hosted the Road World Cycling Championships and the STEAM model was used to assess its impact. The Championships generated a total estimated economic activity of C$48.3m in the province including C$31.1m in the Hamilton region and an additional C$17.2m for other regions in Ontario. These totals resulted from C$19.7m in combined operations, capital and visitors spending. The event contributed nearly C$20.3m to the provincial GDP. A total of C$13.9m in wages and salaries were paid in the province, supporting more than 527 jobs. In the City of Hamilton, wages totalled C$9.4m and nearly 410 jobs. Looking to the future"Our objective in the mid-term is to look at making this tool available to other countries for their own use," adds Traer. "The environment for bidding for domestic and international events is fierce. One of the features of STEAM is its propensity to share best practices and benefits of the system include access to bid documents, event execution plans and documentation relating to a variety of sports and tourism-related areas."
In February 2004, CSTA announced it had reached an agreement with mobile data collection solutions company Techneos Systems to use its Entryware Professional software to facilitate the collection of primary data on-site at selected sport events in Canada over the next 12 months. Entryware Professional integrates powerful PC-based survey design software with an easy-to-use mobile component that runs on any Palm Powered handheld device, enabling corporations and research firms to extend data collection projects out into the field. The software is projected to be used at the 2004 Nokia Brier (Saskatoon), the 2004 Tennis Masters Canada (Toronto), the 2004 Grey Cup Game (Ottawa) and the 2004 Canadian Grand Prix (Montreal), in addition to several other sport events across Canada. The above article is an extract from the Sportcal report Bidding and Hosting: The Guide to Successful Sporting Events, written by Rachael Church of ArkSports and Sport and Technology, described as "successfully comprehensive" by John Goody of The Times in London. For further information about the report, see http://www.sportcal.com/reports/full_info.asp?id=12 New Hosting and Bidding e-newsletter - Sponsorship opportunities
ArkSports, publisher of the acclaimed Sport and Technology e-newsletter will shortly be launching a new e-newsletter covering developments in the bidding and hosting industry for sports events. Published 10 times per year and containing invaluable editorial insight and contributions from leading industry experts, Hosting and Bidding will contain up-to-date information and in-depth analysis on a sector ArkSports forecasts will be worth $5.6bn by 2012 for bidding for and hosting the top 50 sports events. For further information on sponsorship and advertising opportunities in an e-newsletter that will be circulated to over 4,000 sports executives, contact ArkSports (info@arksports.com).
This article was seen first by people who receive the monthly newsletter, join them.
|
