From FYI Music:
According to an Enigma Research report, commissioned by Canadian Festivals Coalition, the 15 largest events annually generate more than $1B in new spending.
Festivals are big news on the political landscape, but the competition is fierce and about to become fiercer still. Rio Carnival annually attracts 500,000 visitors, and Summerfest in Milwaukee, WI pulls in a reported 1M people over the 11-day event.
A coalition of the like-minded, calling themselves UK Music, recently released a report showing music related tourism annually attracts as many as 6.5M people to the island nation, spending £2.2B and helping to generate as many as 24,000 jobs.
The music industry is in a state of flux, and trade association Music Canada, aware of this, has taken a forward looking approach to investing resources to map out a future and affect change in government policies. It was this message that was conveyed at NXNE in 2012, and backed up with solid research in a report that can be downloaded here, and subsequently expanded on in a more expansive and forward thinking document entitled The Next Big Bang: A New Direction for Music in Canada.
