The economic impact case study of a year long tourism event: Homecoming Scotland 2014

Events can offer cities, regions and nation states the opportunity to establish and position themselves on the world stage (Hall, 1992; Dredge and Whitford, 2010; Smith, 2012; Raj et al., 2013). Homecoming Scotland 2014 is an example of a year long tourism marketing initiative that was commissioned by the Scottish Government to position Scotland on the international stage as a dynamic and creative nation (VisitScotland, 2014). The coordinated event programme delivered a year long celebration of 1,049 festivals and events, achieving attendances of more than 4.6 million people at a wide range of branded events. This plethora of events was geographically dispersed across islands, cities, towns, highlands and lowlands and celebrated the very best of Scottish arts, culture, food/drink, nature activities, history and ancestry. The Moffat Centre for Travel and Tourism Business Development at Glasgow Caledonian University was commissioned by the Scottish Government and the Scottish national event agency; EventsScotland to evaluate the economic impact of the event. Rojek (2013) and Lenskyj (2015) identify that there are significant issues with existing economic impact studies, postulating that they are too descriptive in nature and lack critical analysis. This positivist study used detailed surveys and collected data from 2700 attendees at 19 of the 132 partner events. These findings combined with Event Organiser Outcome Reports (EOOR’s) enabled a detailed economic analysis to be carried out. The sophisticated methodology allowed the research to only account for spending by those from outside Scotland who were motivated by Homecoming Scotland 2014 and indicated that the net additional revenue in Scotland attributable to Homecoming 2014 was £136m. This represented net additional spends by visitors, businesses and supply chain spending as a direct result of the Homecoming.