Economic impact studies are fairly complex things.  Our study runs over 35 spreadsheets with numbers in every direction.  However, the basic premise is pretty simple-- you're trying to figure out how many people will visit the Center, how much money they will spend AND- if they would have come to Georgia without you.  You can then estimate how much new spending will take place.

Here's how we've done our analysis.  First-- we estimated how many people will come.  Based on other cities, on other Atlanta museums and sites and our consumer research that showed significant interest in the new Center and in the King Papers- we've estimated 800,000 folks will come the first year.  All museums see a leveling off after the first year, so we expect 650,000 long term to visit per year.  These are conservative to make sure we are not over confident.

Next- we have to understand how out of town folks will come specifically to visit us, instead of coming to visit another institution or are from the metro area.  We basically are estimating that 20% of our visitors will be out of town visitors coming specifically to visit us.  The other 80% will be here for other reasons or from the metro area.

So-- to get the economic impact numbers-- basically you count only the spending INSIDE the Center for the 80% of folks who are coming anyway, basically just their tickets and other spending at the Center.  For the 20% coming specifically for you- ALL of their spending, both INSIDE AND OUTSIDE the city, while they are in Georgia, is counted as impact.  The reason is because they wouldn't have come to Georgia without the Center being built.

A couple of questions often asked:

1) Aren't you double counting by for instance counting their ticket to the aquarium as your impact?  The answer is no-- these are people who no one anticipated coming to Georgia, therefore they should not be in anyone else's numbers.

2) Are you assuming people stay extra days because the Center will exist?  Again no-- even though that may happen, we have not estimated that it will happen.

3) How much are you assuming for the ticket price?  We've assumed a $12 adult full price, with lower prices for kids, senior citizens and families.  In order to make the Center accessible to all- we've assumed that some times every month will be absolutely free to all-- it may be a day a month, it may be two evenings a month, but there will be a way for folks to come for free. 

The summary of the study can be seen here-- STUDY

Questions are welcome-- we want to make sure folks understand the estimates

DS