BEN 300 ECONOMIC IMPACT ANALYSIS
Philadelphia, PA
Urban Partners served as a consultant to the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation to independently assess the economic impact of the National Constitution Center's Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World exhibition that was held in conjunction with the Ben 300 tercentenary celebration. Our analysis focused on three factors: 1.) the overall spending impact generated as a result of the exhibition; 2.) employment generated by this activity, and 3.) tax benefits received by the City of Philadelphia and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a result of the event.
The incremental economic impact of cultural visitors depends on several important factors. Was the visitor motivated to come to Philadelphia predominantly to see this exhibition? How long did the visitor stay? Did they stay overnight in a hotel? What other activities did the visitor enjoy while here? How far did the visitor travel? Urban Partners designed survey instruments ot quantify attendance and visitor characteristics and worked with GPTMC to obtain information from the National Constitution Center and other area museums, exhibition marketing partners, hotels, tour operators, restaurants, advertising entities, etc. for use in our analysis.
The exhibition generated a total direct and indirect economic impact of an estimated $25.1 million, including local and state tax benefits of over $1.5 million, the consumption of over 7,500 hotel rooms and the creation of approximately 3,200 full-time equivalent jobs.
