Wisconsin Department of Tourism claims $321 million economic impact from Republican National Convention.
As Center Square clarified:
Economists who have studied the impact of national party conventions says a report from the marketing firm Tourism Economics does not accurately reflect the actual impact of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Economist Victor Matheson of College of the Holy Cross has studied and written on national conventions and large events, He called the release, which claims the event had a $321.5 million impact, a “promotional booklet/press release, not a serious economic impact study.”
Center Square, in other economic impact reporting, further noted:
Economists say the numbers produced by the marketing group do not follow economic study principals and are not reputable. The numbers are used by politicians and state tourism departments to justify spending.
“Viewing what ‘economic impact’ consultants do to be economics is like considering horoscopes to be astronomy,” economist J.C. Bradbury of Georgia’s Kennesaw State University recently wrote. “Newspapers are smart enough to put horoscopes next to the comics and Dear Abby, while economic impact ‘studies’ get banner headlines on the front page.”
Bradbury noted economic impact analysis is not something real economists do and there is a reason that work is not presented at conferences or published in journals.Economic impact is often claimed surrounding publicly funded sports stadium projects or sporting events.
The annual tourism reports are paid for by state tourism departments and national tourism agencies.
Urban Milwaukee reported:
But when the Common Council discussed the RNC in September, it wasn’t as favorable.
“It didn’t trickle into the neighborhoods,” said Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic of the economic impact.
In an email to Dimitrijevic, LuLu Cafe & Bar owner Cameryne Roberts said the RNC didn’t result in a business boom. “For what it’s worth, the RNC was a complete bust for us and most of the other Bay View business owners I spoke with, not to mention those in other parts of town.”
Alderwoman Milele A. Coggs asked for the final report to include a geographic breakdown and diversity data. “I just want us, as a council, in case we’re asked again to sign on to anything like this, to be aware of its impact. And where things might not have been how we wanted it to be, or we might not have achieved the goals we were going to achieve, that we recognize that and that we work differently in the future to better achieve those goals,” said Coggs. The final report does not include the breakdown requested.
Reports during the convention highlighted how many businesses outside of the hard security perimeter were seeing lackluster business. Across the month of July, sales tax revenue in Milwaukee was actually down year over year. But the state, which collects the revenue, does not collect data by week.
Per usual, many of these economic-impact no-brainers (conventions, stadiums, Olympics, etc.) which are touted to be win-wins for cities and states are anything but.