Economic performance measurement systems for event planning and investment decision making

Cities and destinations have assigned a strategic role in tourist and place marketing to events. Economic impact analyses are one of the tools that policy makers can use to support effective investment decision making in event planning. The more precise and accurate these analyses are, the more helpful to event planning they will be. This paper proposes an innovative methodology to improve the economic impact estimate of events. It combines tested action-tracking technologies to track the consumer behaviour of visitors to the event (Radio Frequency IDentification – passive RFID) with bottom–up Input–Output models. A case study was carried out on the Festival of Economics in Trento, Italy, a cultural hallmark event aimed at high tourist flows, image-making and place branding and marketing. The paper suggests the inclusion of accurate economic impact analyses of events in the range of instruments used by policy makers to support effective decision making and investment.