Eat Local Week Feeds $2 Million Into Regional Economy

More than $2 million was fed into the regional and Queensland economy by Scenic Rim’s 2018 Eat Local Week, the biggest in the event’s eight-year history, analysis has revealed.

Mayor Greg Christensen said the overall economic impact of Scenic Rim Eat Local Week 2018, held in late June and early July,  was 19 per cent greater than the $1.71 million of 2017, while event attendance increased by 16 per cent from 32,171 to 37,280.  The signature event, the Winter Harvest Festival, drew a crowd of 14,000 – 17 per cent more than in the previous year.

"We had a program of 90 individual events and we set out to encourage more people to come to these events, to stay in our region for longer and to spend more while they were here, and that strategy reaped dividends," Cr Christensen said.

"The number of visitors who came from interstate or from other parts of Queensland was up 23 per cent, the average amount spent by interstate visitors was up by 28 per cent and the average amount spent by day trippers was up 24 per cent.

“Visitors from intrastate are now staying an average of 3.2 nights, up from 2.8 last year, while those from interstate are staying 3.0 nights."

The independent, post-event analysis was undertaken as part of Tourism and Events Queensland's support of Scenic Rim Eat Local Week.

"Whichever way you look at it, Scenic Rim Eat Local Week served up a great financial dividend for our region as a showcase and celebration of our produce and our farmers, food manufacturers and processors,” Cr Christensen said.

“It also promoted our unique offering as a tourism destination; a fabulous combination of spectacular scenery, a broad range of accommodation options, wonderful authentic experiences and spectacular food and wine.

"Through Scenic Rim Eat Local Week, we continue to forge links between our agriculture and tourism sectors, which are collectively worth more than $630 million to our regional economy."

Scenic Rim Eat Local Week is made possible through the generous support of presenting partner Tourism & Events Queensland; major partners Kalfresh/Just Veg and Queensland Urban Utilities and supporting partners Kalbar and District Community Bank Branch of Bendigo Bank, Huebner Toyota/Beaudesert Mazda and Brisbane Marketing.

Scenic Rim Eat Local Week at a glance

• $2,034,101 contributed to regional and state economy (up 19%)
• Total attendance of 37,280 (up 16%)
• Record attendance of 14,000 at the Winter Harvest Festival (up 17%)
• 16,874 of visitors came from interstate and intrastate (up 23%)
• 15,875 people visited the region primarily to attend Eat Local Week events (up 34%)
• 11,080 visitor nights were spent in the Scenic Rim
• $1.43 million was spent by overnight visitors