Major events bring many benefits to city

Major events bring many benefits to city

Major sporting and other events attracted to Bendigo by the City of Greater Bendigo Major Events Unit are injecting millions of dollars into the local economy each year.

City Major Events Manager, Terry Karamaloudis, said major events are lucrative for Bendigo and in the last financial year the City supported 91 events that attracted an impressive 143,600 participants - 11 more events and 11,000 more participants than the previous financial year.

“Many of these people would simply not have come to enjoy our beautiful city if it were not for the specific event they attended or participated in,” Mr Karamaloudis said.

“The economic impact of major events can be difficult to determine. Australian Tourism Research data indicates that sporting tourists spend $230 per day when they stay in a city, while the REMPLAN economic modelling data that the City uses estimates that over-night visitors in our city spend around $150 per person.

“Either way, attracting 143,600 visitors to Bendigo for major events alone results in a significant boost for our local economy.”

The REMPLAN model indicates more than $24M was injected into our local economy as a result of City-supported events in the 2014/2015 financial year.

“This money goes directly into Bendigo’s economy via accommodation bookings, consumption at restaurants, cafes, bars and retail purchases like petrol and other incidental items,” Mr Karamaloudis said.

“It’s even more significant when you consider that most sporting events are two day events or longer. An example of this was the Basketball Victoria Country U12 Championships in March, which attracted 900 participants over three days of competition.   

“Interestingly, this figure doesn’t include the parents or guardians who accompanied the junior athletes to the championships making the value of these events far greater than what we can conservatively estimate.

“As well as being great news for our local economy, events such as these showcase our excellent facilities, often involve passionate community groups or sporting clubs and engage volunteers to help with a range of roles that are essential to running a successful event.

“The events also help boost ‘Brand Bendigo’ and the city is continually seen as an exciting and attractive place to live and visit.”

Since 2013 local businesses All Seasons Bendigo, SASI Marketing, Quest Bendigo and Bendigo Central, Share Media, The Zone Entertainment Complex, Tweed Sutherland First National, Birchgrove Property, McKern Foundation, Bendigo Party Hire, Park Lane Holiday Park, Power AV, Bendigo Advertiser and Gold Central Victoria have been supporting the City’s ongoing efforts to attract major sporting events to our region through a specially designed Major Sporting Events Partnership Program.

“These businesses have realised the value of attracting major events to Bendigo and are putting up funding to secure these events for our city,” Mr Karamaloudis said.

“The partnership has proved very successful and the funds it has provided have been used to help secure high calibre competitions that bring with them a large number of participants and also attract hundreds of spectators.

“We would be hard pressed to find a week or weekend where we do not have an event booked in Bendigo.”

For more information visit City of Greater Bendigo