September's Star-Spangled Spectacular drew 1.43 million people who spent $164 million on Baltimore-area hotel rooms, meals and entertainment, down slightly from a similar event that kicked off War of 1812 bicentennial commemorations in 2012, according to a report released Tuesday.
The smaller numbers were to be expected, said Bill Pencek, executive director of the War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission. The Star-Spangled Sailabration attracted 1.54 million people who spent $166 million during the summer tourism season in June 2012, while the Spectacular, coinciding with the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Baltimore on Sept. 14, took place while schools were in session.
Both events helped raise Baltimore's profile as a historic site, the report found. About 39 percent of the U.S. population can correctly name the city as the birthplace of "The Star-Spangled Banner," up from 25 percent six years ago, according to the report.
Seven years of planning went into the Spectacular and a host of other "Star-Spangled" events that sought to capitalize on the city's place in the nation's history as the defenders who fought off the British, helped turn the tide in the war and inspired the poem that became our national anthem. The two marquee events featured dozens of tall ships from around the world and air shows by the Navy's Blue Angels.
"We welcomed the world to Baltimore and showcased our amazing city and wonderful people," Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said. "Tourism is one of Baltimore's major economic engines, and the Spectacular revealed once again that we are an unparalleled host."
Most of the visitors to the Spectacular, held Sept. 10-16, were from Maryland, according to the report by the Pittsburgh-based Forward Analytics. About 15 percent came from 18 other states, including Maine, Florida, Texas, California and Washington. About 205,000 were estimated to have been visiting Baltimore for the first time.
The tall ships and air shows were the top attractions, and most spent five or more hours at the events. Slightly more than two-thirds of the visitors attended more than one day, and 30 percent spent four or more days at the event, the report found.
Forward Analytics developed the report by surveying 1,644 adults over six days of the event. Its crowd estimates used data from the Mayor's Office of Emergency Management, the Fire Department, the tourism agency Visit Baltimore, the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts, Sail Baltimore and the War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission.
Daraius Irani, an economist at Towson University's Regional Economic Studies Institute, said that while crowd estimates can be tricky, the surveys show the economic analysis of the event is reliable.
But that doesn't mean the economic impact can be considered new money flowing into the state that wouldn't have otherwise, he said. The report's estimates measure money brought to the region by visitors from out of state and from the suburbs and other parts of Maryland. The study found that about one in four who attended was a Baltimore resident.
"Since a majority of the visitors were actually from Maryland, you really couldn't say the state benefited because those people would have spent their money in the state anyway on something else," Irani said. "It brought money from the suburbs to the city, so the city benefited."
The Star-Spangled Spectacular's economic impact was about 3.5 times that of the Grand Prix of Baltimore and nearly six times that of Artscape, according to reports on those events for which the city hired Forward Analytics in recent years.
The spending translated to tax revenue of $6.42 million for the state and $1.5 million for the city, the report found. The War of 1812 commission spent $5.1 million on the event, while the city said it expected to spend about $2 million on police overtime and other costs.
The report corroborated anecdotes from downtown business owners who said they enjoyed a boom in business during the Spectacular. The event, as well as the Sailabration two years earlier, prompted talk from some over whether the city could more regularly host tall ships or air shows.
Ed Prutzer, general manager of the Rusty Scupper restaurant in the Inner Harbor, said business was up by half last year compared with a normal year, thanks in large part to the Spectacular's crowds.
"If we did this every couple years, what would it do?" Prutzer said. "You don't know if you repeated it that often if you'd get the same result. It's a great thing to bring business into the city, and for the local residents, too, it just makes you prouder to be here."
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