21/08/2009
The economic impact of the RallyRACC on the Costa Daurada

Citroën service park

The highly positive influence of the RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA on the economy of Tarragona is a palpable reality. The more than 150 thousand people that followed the rally live during the four days of the last edition generated a net amount of almost 26 million euro, with accommodation, restaurants and fuel being the main sources of income for the area. These figures have been recorded by the study on the economic impact of the 44 RallyRACC carried out by BCP Consulting Group, in co-operation with Rovira and Virgili University of Tarragona, on behalf of the RACC.

This study, based on surveys carried out on site during the event, was based on two pillars: To determine the direct economic impact of the rally by asking the attending spectators, and to analyse the indirect impact, i.e. the national and international image offered to the world by the organiser and the area through the rally.

Profile and consumer behaviour of spectators
It is estimated that 150,827 people followed the RallyRACC Catalunya-COSTA DAURADA, staged in early October, live; making an average of 43,093 people per day. Almost half of them (approx. 45.43%) spent at least one night in the area.

The most frequent profile of the attending public is male (77.2% men against 22.8% women), between 26 and 35 years old (36.37%), with secondary education and employed (64.27%).

Most of the attendants are residents in Catalonia (basically 23% from the province of Barcelona and 20.6% from the province of Tarragona) and 16% of the total public comes from different areas in Spain. 90.84% of them are Spaniards and 9.15% come from abroad.

The almost exclusive reason for them to attend the rally is their passion for motor sports (most of them follow races of the Spanish Championship as well as regional series and, although 34.18% spend the complete day following the race, 98.28% stay more than one day in the area (24.95% up to four days and 65.1% more than two days).

www.rallyracc.com contributes to spectator loyalty
A fact to be highlighted is the increase in the number of first-time spectators at the last two editions. The reasons for their attendance are the importance of watching a World Championship event live and the positive comments and experiences from friends, or the follow-up of the race on the official rally website (www.rallyracc.com).  In fact, in the past two years, the Internet has become the number one way for fans to get information about the event.

In September 2008 (one month prior to the rally) the website was visited 11,432 times, almost as much visits as during the rally week, which recorded 110,000 visits and more than 1,800,000 hits. This year, the trend is even higher, with an increase of 10% compared to last year.

Accommodation and fuel, main sources of income
In view of the fifth time the rally is carried out completely in the Costa Daurada, the businessmen of the area have increased their level of satisfaction, stating that it provides their establishments with direct business, especially in the hotel branch.

The accommodation item is the biggest of the six into which the 26-million benefit provided by the rally is divided. It is estimated, that each person staying-over in the area, spends an average of 176 Euros, making-up a total of 8,744,028 Euros. The second biggest item is fuel: 7,812,838 Euros (51.80 in average per person). The other three big groups are made up by food and beverages (5,461,445 Euros), leisure (2,111,578 Euros) and merchandising (1,125,747 Euros), the rest of the amount corresponds to other smaller items. 

The important role of the media
The dissemination of a world championship event attracts a large number of national and international media representatives and moves spectacular audience figures. This is considered as an indirect economic impact. According to figures provided by the company Acceso Group, the national TV coverage of the event reached almost 15 hours of broadcasting in the different TV channels, with an audience of more than 24 million viewers, meaning an economic return of more than 2 million Euros. According to ISC, the RallyRACC was followed by more than 17 million viewers from 94 countries, covering more than 80 broadcasting hours. As regards written media, more than 271 pages were dedicated to the Spanish event, reaching almost 110 million readers, meaning an image return for the organiser and partners of 1,428,509 Euros.