South African Cultural Observatory
South African Festival Economic Impact Calculator
The South African Festivals Economic Impact Calculator frequently asked questions Faqs

The South African Festivals Economic Impact Calculator (SAFEIC) is very easy to use – provided you have all the right information available. However, that does not mean you won’t have questions. Download the FAQ document to answer your most pressing questions.

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SAFEIC download guide Download

Download the full guide to the SAFEIC to walk you through the process. Learn about what economic impact measures; how to determine attendee numbers and spending patterns; your spending and the Total Economic Impact and Multipliers. Also get templates for surveys to use at events.

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The South African Festivals Economic Impact Calculator (SAFEIC) Get Started

Everything you need to get started is outlined in the SAFEIC guide.– remember to have all the required facts and figures on hand so that input is quick and easy. Click here to start inputting your data and getting your impact results.

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WHAT DOES SAFEIC DO?

The South African Festivals Economic Impact Calculator (SAFEIC) is a free online tool developed by the South African Cultural Observatory specifically for cultural festival and event organisers so they can track the economic impact of their events. The SAFEIC is designed to be used to estimate the economic impact of a festival on a host economy. It has been carefully, and conservatively, designed so as to produce results that are as reliable and valid as possible for a wide range of events – provided the data that is inputted is as accurate as possible.

To use the SAFEIC, a festival or event organiser requires a minimum of seven pieces of information:

  1. DAYS: Number of days of the festival or event
  2. POPULATION: Population of the host city or town (obtainable from the Statistics SA website);
  3. VISITORS: The total number of attendees;
  4. ACCOMMODATION: Average visitor spending on accommodation per night (obtainable from a visitor survey, or using averages produced from the SA Domestic Tourism Survey provided);
  5. SPENDING: Average visitor spending on things other than accommodation, such as food and shopping (obtainable from a visitor survey, or using averages produced from the SA Domestic Tourism Survey provided);
  6. FUNDING: Funding or sponsorship from outside the host town or city; and
  7. EARNINGS: Total organiser earnings from ticket sales, venue hire etc.

Ideally, some of this information should come from a visitor survey, but if a survey is not possible, the SAFEIC guide provides estimates of some variables such as average visitor spending.