Real Impact or Just Spending? What 20+ Event Reports Taught Me About Measuring What Matters
The other day, I went down the rabbit hole of reading over 20 economic impact reports from major events. A few hours later, I came back with more questions than answers — and a completely new perspective on how we measure event success.
So I took a closer look at some of the recent public reports. Like the previous three (public) reports (or estimates) from Eurovision Song Contest - iconic event concept in Europe.
🎤 2023 — Liverpool
306,000 unique visitors
€63.5M direct economic impact
🎤 2024 — Malmö
159,680 venue visits
€38.5M tourism turnover
🎤 2025 — Basel (projected)
€64M expected local benefit
At first glance, these numbers sound impressive. Almost all event reports do. High spending. Big visitor numbers. Broad media reach.
But one critical question rarely gets answered:
How much of that money actually stayed in the local economy?
Most reports track what was spent and how many people came.
But very few go deeper. They don’t show:
How much money flowed to local suppliers
What leaked out through global chains, platforms, and non-local providers
What was retained and reinvested in the community
This pattern was consistent in nearly every report I read.
Spending is measured. Impact is assumed.
But here’s the thing:
Spending isn’t impact.
Impact is what stays.
What gets reused.
What seeds future growth.
Let’s take a hotel booking, for example. Sure, it counts toward the spending total.
But if it’s a global hotel chain, and the profit leaves the city after checkout, how much of that really benefitted the local economy? Some wages, some purchasing. But most value? Gone.
So until we start asking what stayed and what it led to, we’re not measuring real impact.
We’re just measuring activity.
🔍 3 Lessons That Changed How I Look at Event Impact
After reading all those reports, here’s what stuck with me:
1. The headline number is just the beginning
Reports love big spending figures. But few explain how much of it was actually retained — or what it led to afterward.
2. Spending ≠ Staying
Even if spending happens locally, a lot of it leaks out. Through international platforms, global chains, and suppliers with no local roots.
3. No one reports what happens next
Did the spending help local businesses grow? Did they hire more people? Reinvest? Improve? These are the real wins — and almost no report tries to track them. (Because yes, it’s hard.)