Study: $73.5 million impact from Choir Games

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Cincinnati Enquirer Article

By David Holthaus • dholthaus@enquirer.com

The 2012 World Choir Games, to be held in Cincinnati, will have an estimated economic impact of $73.5 million, according to a University of Cincinnati report released Thursday.

The impact includes direct spending of $36 million by the operators and organizers of the event, participants who will stay at hotels downtown and elsewhere, and by spectators. Indirect spending accounts for the rest of the estimated impact.

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More than $1.8 million in new tax revenue is expected to be collected by Cincinnati, Hamilton County and other local governments as a result of the direct and indirect spending for the event, the study found.

The Cincinnati USA Convention and Visitors Bureau, which recruited the event, says up to 20,000 participants from more than 70 countries, and 200,000 spectators, are expected to attend what is billed as the largest choral festival in the world.

It will be held in Cincinnati the summer of 2012. The city was awarded the 2012 games in 2009 after an international bid process involving 20 other cities.

Cincinnati will be the first American city to host the event.

Dan Lincoln, CEO of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the 2012 event is the largest convention booking in the history of the region.

Jeff Rexhausen, who led the UC study, said the $73.5 million economic impact would rank the World Choir Games ahead of the year-round impact of almost every indoor arts, culture or recreation venue in the region.

The event has previously been held in Austria (twice), Germany, China and Korea. This year, the World Choir Games is being held in Shaoxing, China, from July 15-26.