GULF SHORES, Alabama -- In addition to sampling seafood, listening to music and looking over art displays, visitors to the National Shrimp Festival may also respond to surveys as part of an effort to determine the economic impact of the annual celebration.
The Alabama Gulf Coast Area Chamber of Commerce will conduct the study during the four-day celebration that starts today, Ron Kutter, festival chairman, said.
"We’re going to do an economic impact study this weekend to see just what kind of effect the festival has," Kutter said. "The last time we did this was with Auburn University in 2003 and that showed an impact of over $20 million, I’m thinking that it’s going to be more this time."
Questions for visitors include how far they drove to come to the festival, where they are staying and how much money they think they will spend during the event, Jan Umphrey, chamber special events director, said.
"The information we collect will help us by giving us a better understanding of our attendance and the impact that the festival has on the economy in this area," she said.
She said chamber officials hope to have a breakdown of the information by the end of 2011.
The results of the survey will be used to promote future festivals and to help residents and officials understand the effect that the event has on the region, said Don McPherson of the chamber.
The study will also include crowd counts using aerial photography, Kutter said. The survey forms and other information will be sent to the University of South Alabama where they will be analyzed by Semoon Chang, an economics professor.
Marie Curren, director of marketing and reservations for Brett Robinson, said the festival has a major impact on the Gulf Coast economy just before the tourist season winds down.
"The Shrimp Festival has always been that last great weekend for our company at the end of the summer," she said. "Our occupancy rate will hit into the 60 to 70 percent range for the Shrimp Festival, which is good just before we go into the shoulder season."
At Meyer Real Estate, bookings topped 70 percent earlier this week, Missy Zak, vice president of sales and customer relationship management, said. She said numbers were higher in 2010 at about 90 percent, but last year was not a typical season following the oil spill.
"Last year was an anomaly with the discounts we had and people had not been down during the summer," she said. "For the festival, they wanted to show their support for the area and there was a lot of pent-up demand to see the beach. We’re expecting a good year this year though and it’s always a big weekend, our last really big weekend until spring break."
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