Proving Melbourne's Not A One-horse Town
The Age
Saturday October 17, 1998
For the punters and once-a-year pinstickers, it's all about finding a winner.
For the owners and trainers, jockeys and bookies, it's all about making money.
For the fashionable it's all about hemlines and hairstyles, designer suits and the right look. Champagne flutes take precedence over form guides - who cares about barrier draws and track bias?
Once the Melbourne Spring Carnival was just about horses and racing and the odd big bash or two.
Nowadays, in line with the Kennett Government's strategy of positioning Victoria as the major events state, the carnival is much, much more. It is promoted and marketed as a huge money-spinning festival lasting a month-and-a-half, a gala that generates hundreds of millions of dollars for the state's economy.
It's target audience is as much - if not more - the 20-something party set than the traditional horsey crowd, a fact reflected on the billboards around the city illustrating the young and the fashionable in frivolous mood come carnival time.
The hard sell from Racing Victoria is not just for the gallops. It's for a range of entertainment events - from festival shows to fashion parades, musical and stage performances to flower shows - that will draw local, interstate and offshore interest and, more importantly, the tourism dollars the visitors carry with them.
And the figures suggest the strategy is working. While there are no certainties, it's as close to a sure thing as possible to say the carnival affects everyone and everything in Victoria at some point during the seven-week program that begins with the Cranbourne Cup in early October and winds up in mid-November with the Ballarat Cup.
In 1997, according to data prepared for Racing Victoria by the consultant IER Strategic Planning, the estimated economic impact on the state was $200million. Most of the money was spent in metropolitan Melbourne although regional Victoria also received a boost, thanks to an influx of visitors from interstate and overseas.
Last year's result continued a trend that has seen the ``carnival economy" increase well above the negligible inflation rates of recent years. The total for 1997 was more than 15per cent above the estimated economic impact of $173.8million generated in 1996, which itself was well clear of the $145 million total reported for 1995.
As with many of these economic impact studies, precision is difficult as estimation is an inexact science.
But, says Racing Victoria, the 1997 carnival generated $117.8million in direct spending and created 2177 jobs as it attracted record race-day crowds, with attendances at country courses (bringing much-needed tourism revenues to regional Victoria) growing to 152,732.
Some businesses do better than others, and the fashion industry is a notable beneficiary. Dennis Eck, the chief executive of Coles Myer, said that racegoers last year spent more than $15million on new clothes, hats and other accessories for the carnival.
``It is the biggest week outside major sale times for women's fashion and is worth more than $400,000 to Myer's city store millinery business," he said.
In general, the data shows that visitors from Asia, particularly Japan, Malaysia and Hong Kong, are the heaviest spenders. Asian visitors shelled out a daily average of $1415 during carnival time, while visitors from the United States spent an average of $915 a day, Racing Victoria's economic-benefits study on the 1997 carnival shows.
Danny Curran, the organisation's marketing manager, says the growth targets for this year are a little less ambitious.
The shadow of the Asian meltdown looms, and the high rollers from Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong may not be quite as thick on the ground this year as last - as Crown Casino has discovered.
Curran is talking up the situation, arguing that the big Asian players are more likely to be absent at the yearling sale ring early next year than in the betting ring on track this spring.
Nevertheless, he says, ``we would be happy to get an economic impact effect of $210million this year. Apart from Asia, we get a lot of visitors from Europe and Ireland, and they are attracted here by the international flavor of the races nowadays".
``The growth over the last four years has been phenomenal, but really it wasn't marketed that much before. And our overseas reputation is boosted by the foreign runners as they generate a lot of activity in offshore media and get us the publicity that we certainly couldn't buy. That helps draw tourists.
``Vintage Crop winning the Melbourne Cup in 1993 was the best marketing ploy we could have had."
The prospects for improvement appear good. Last week's Caulfield Guineas meeting pulled a 10per cent higher crowd than in 1997, said Curran, and with pay TV now part of the equation off course, interest and gambling should also increase.
``If we can hold the line and get an overall 5per cent improvement on last year it would be a pretty good result. That sort of growth is sustainable and can be built on. Sometimes you get a one-day jump for some reason which distorts the picture and gives a false impression."
email:mlynch@theage.fairfax.com.au
SPRING RACING - SPENDING BY VISITORS $1864.00 Malaysia $1311.55 Singapore $1291.84 Hong Kong $1196.85 Japan $915.70 United States $854.89 Ireland 1997 figures
© 1998 The Age
