The Director of the San Sebastian Festival, José Luis Rebordinos, has presented, with Iñigo Arteche, Director of Assessment and Consultancy at IKERTALDE, the economic impact study carried out on the Festival by the company.
Among the data and conclusions of the study are:
The San Sebastian Festival is an SME (small and medium enterprise) with a team of 642 people during the event. A 12-month calculation of the time worked by these people shows that the Festival is a stable organisation that generates 82 jobs a year (40 own staff and 42 of its partners’ staff).
As regard the indirect impacts of the Festival in relation to cultural activity and high citizen participation, note should be taken of the following figures:
- 226 films screened at 619 showings.
- An audience of 157,256.
- 2,231 industry professionals, from 69 countries; 996 accredited journalists from 42 countries (790 national and 206 from other countries).
The Festival budget stood at approximately EUR 7.5 million in 2012:
- 85% of this sum is spent locally (EUR 6,363,239). The EUR 1 million in seed funding contributed by the City Council means that we can leverage a balanced budget 7.5 times greater.
- The public-private support structure is approximately 56% and 44% respectively.
- On the other hand, the Festival funding trend in recent years highlights efforts to achieve sustainability associated to progressive optimisation of private funding, which increased by 9% as regards private contributions and 13% as regards the generation of own funds in 2011 and 2012.
With respect to Indirect Impact, the Festival becomes a prolongation of summer in San Sebastian during the month of September. The tertiary effect of the associated tourist expenditure is estimated at EUR 11.9 million:
- 28,025 hotel nights with an economic value of approximately EUR 3.2 million.
- In the rest of the tertiary sector expenditure amounts to EUR 8.7 million.
The sum of Direct (85% of the Festival budget converted into local expenditure amounting to EUR 6,363,239) and Indirect Impacts (tertiary expenditure of EUR 11,849,975) comes to total local overall spending of EUR 18,213,214.
This spending unleashes an Induced Impact on a whole series of intermediate activities in interrelated sectors with a total production of EUR 27,319,821. This translates into a GDP of EUR 14,570,571 and 235 jobs.
This activity in turn generates direct public revenue of EUR 4,662,583 through the following taxes:
- Personal Income Tax (IRPF): EUR 801,499
- Corporate Tax: EUR 746,013
- Goods and Services Tax: EUR 1,529,793
- Social Security: EUR 1,585,278
We must not forget the coverage received abroad by the event in the different media, with more than 18,000 mentions accounted for in more than520 different media worldwide. For their part, advertising contracts translate into an equivalent financial value of EUR 67.7million and invaluable publicity for the city.
The study carried out demonstrates how every euro invested in the Festival multiplies and generates direct positive returns for the society of San Sebastian in particular and for that of Gipuzkoa in general.
Backed by more than 60 years of existence, the Festival not only constitutes a brand for the city and project for the country, it is also a potential catalyst of economic, tourist and cultural development strategies.