Festivals Adelaide finds SA festivals delivered $5 for $1 of government funding ADELAIDE'S 10 major arts festivals delivered a return to the community of around $5 for every dollar of government funding last year but are also finding new ways to assess the value of their cultural and social impact. A study commissioned by the newly-formed Festivals Adelaide organisation found visitors to the combined events in 2012 spent $58.1 million - excluding ticket sales - and generated a total $62.9 million in new income for the state economy. The umbrella group includes the main Adelaide Festival, Fringe and Womadelaide in February-March, as well as the Cabaret, Film, International Guitar, SALA, OzAsia, Feast and Come Out festivals. Its impact study was conducted by associate professor Barry Burgan, director of Business Development at the University of Adelaide and former director of the SA Centre for Economic Studies. "There are two aspects to the value of a festival," Mr Burgan said. There is the short-term aspect of how many visitors it attracts and how much they spend. It has other impacts in terms of cultural contribution and builds critical mass. It provides a focus. Festivals helped to brand and buoy the overall arts industry in South Australia. "Internationally, the importance of festivals, not just as a tourism drawcard but a critical part of developing a creative economy, is increasingly being recognised," Mr Burgan said. Saying 'we are going to have a festival' is not enough you have to get it right. I don't think every festival all around the world can defend itself in terms of its economic impact or its cultural impact. If the aim of a festival is visitation, then it has to actually achieve that. If the Fringe's aim ... is more about the feel and vibrancy of the city, then that has to be done as well to get the impact, otherwise the investment doesn't pay off. Festivals Adelaide executive officer Tory McBride said she expected to see "exponential growth" in the contribution member events made to SA's cultural life and economic prosperity. "One way we're exploring new ideas for furthering our festivals' collective cause is the establishment of an ... advisory committee that capitalises on the collective wisdom, knowledge and experience of some of the state's most respected business, tourism and arts leaders," Ms McBride said. The inaugural Festivals Adelaide committee will include Tourism SA chair Jane Jeffreys, Arts SA director Alexandra Reid, Adelaide City Council chief executive Peter Smith and Business SA chief Nigel McBride. Festival Centre director Douglas Gautier, Adelaide Convention Bureau chief Damien Kitto, James Bruce from Theodore Bruce Auctions and Intuito chief executive Jan Turbill will also bring their expertise to the table. "The body of knowledge and experience within this group is as diverse as it is impressive," Ms Jeffreys said. I'm confident we can make a real contribution to SA's cultural and economic prosperity. Mr Burgan said comparable combined impact figures for past years were not available but Festivals Adelaide planned to continue its research across future events. "One of the important things here has been to get a consistent and correct methodology across the whole set of 10 (festivals)," he said. It will also include research into the more "holistic impact" of the festivals. "It's about being able to demonstrate the return on investment," Mr Burgan said. That includes the taxpayers but it also includes the sponsors to the programs and all those sorts of things. The activity it generates doesn't just go through the door of the event, it gets distributed around a whole lot of other players restaurants and bars and taxis. Despite total festival attendances of 2.82 million, with more than 590,000 tickets sold last year, local contribution to the economic impact figure is actually very small. It is only an element of retained expenditure,' Mr Burgan said. For most South Australians who go to the shows, it's assumed that their expenditure on the show is a transfer effect, so it gives no economic impact. They would have spent the money going to the cinema, or going to the football or something like that instead. It is considered a transfer and it's not counted in the economic impact. The economic impact figures only include additional expenditure in the state, which is largely generated by those visitors and performers who spend money which otherwise wouldn't be here. "Even for visitors, if a visitor responds to the survey and says they would have come (to South Australia) anyway, they are not counted," Mr Burgan said. It is only the spend associated with the created visitation that is counted. Roughly speaking, for every dollar of government support to the festivals, there is about five dollars that comes back in created or new incomes to people in the state. The contribution of smaller festivals should not be under-estimated, Mr Burgan said. Where you have a festival that has small levels of visitor numbers, they obviously have a lower economic impact. However ... there are other sources of value involved. When people choose to go to a festival instead of something else, which means they value it higher relative to the same amount of spend. For me, the economic impact is only one part of the valuation equation. Total attendances at Adelaide's 10 major festivals last year: 2.82 million. Number of tickets sold across all festivals: 590,000. Attendances by visitors to South Australia: 63,850. Total number of festival visitor nights spent in the state: 304,100. Average length of visitor stay in South Australia: Six nights per person. Full-time equivalent jobs created in delivering the 10 main festivals: 790. Estimated visitor expenditure, excluding tickets: $58.1 million. Total economic benefit to South Australia: $62.9 million.