Chinese New Year success

This year’s Chinese New Year Festival generated up to $27.8 million, a study by Victoria University (VU) academics has found.

A large part of the festival, which ran for 17 days in late January and early February, was based here in Southbank.

The VU team found that an investment of $925,283 by Chinese New Year United generated an economic benefit of between $22.7 million and $27.8 million.

“This is a large economic impact well above the initial cost of investment,” the VU report says. “This impact also leads to the development of approximately 3800 to 4600 equivalent one-year jobs.”

The researchers found that the festival “engaged” some 872,000 people. But, they said, most would have been in the area anyway and settled on an estimate of actual “attendees” of between 174,000 and 218,000 people. These are the people who set out specifically to attend the festival.

Festival organisers have a funding submission for 2018 before the City of Melbourne and, at this stage, it is unclear what the future of the event is.

The VU report said: “In summary, the 2017 CNY Festival has engaged a large number of visitors, and generated a sizeable economic impact through ‘additional’ expenditure, and the creation of a substantial number of related jobs, in the wider economy.”

“Overall, it has generally achieved its objectives and provided the foundations for its continued success. An important and commendable outcome was the extensive engagement with, and collaboration between, a broad and diverse range of stakeholders, including visitors, partners and sponsors.”

“As the festival expands in the future, this engagement and collaboration will be critical to its ongoing success.”