I was chatting to some friends the other day on Facebook.
We were talking about the value that Ironman, which is the island’s biggest event, brings here.
Knowing that one of the people in the conversation is a statistician and economist, I deliberately threw in the line that the value is “Incalculable.”
I’m pleased to say Adam Simmons took the bait!
Within an hour I had a detailed analysis in my inbox.
- He downloaded a copy of the start list
- Took out a percentage to discount local residents
- Assumed an average number of “extra” people (wives husbands and kids) who would visit with “their” athletes
- And finally applied the average daily spend per person visiting the island.
The answer came out at just shy of half a million Euros
And that, of course, is an extremely conservative estimate which doesn’t take into account the following
- Triathletes tend to be high earners and therefore high spenders
- Most triathletes visit the island at least once during the year and sometimes several times to train for the event in our conditions
But even the headline figure is interesting – in the space of the next few days visiting athletes will be spending half a million Euros in the island’s shops, bars, restaurants and businesses.
Are we doing enough to welcome them?
With huge thanks to Adam – you can find out more about him at Adamsimmons.co.uk and via his work with Lanzarote Business Club