Collecting spending data for events

The Events Calculator helps you estimate the economic impact of an event on your local area. To get accurate results, you’ll need good information on how much visitors to the event spend both at the event and elsewhere in your local area. This guide walks you through simple, effective ways to collect that data.

Choose the right way to collect spending data

There’s no single perfect method for gathering spending information, so pick the option that works best for your event (or, ideally, combine more than one):

On-site intercept surveys: Quick conversations with visitors as they arrive, leave, or wait in queues. Ideally you want to survey a sample of people that is representative of the total population attending the event. This method is great for: festivals, sports events, markets, busy venues.
Post‑event online surveys: send a short follow‑up questionnaire to registered attendees. Great for: ticketed events, conferences, workshops.
Electronic payment data: tools like Marketview provide anonymised electronic card spending in your area. Great for: busy retail precincts or events with strong spending in surrounding areas.

Choose your area

Decide what area you want to base your economic impact on. In the Events Calculator you can choose the Regional Council areas or a Territorial Authorities that are part of your subscription.

Only include spending by out-of-towners

This point is crucial: local spending does not count toward economic impact.

If locals hadn’t spent at the event, they would likely have spent that money elsewhere in the local economy. Visitors from outside the area, however, bring new money into your local area.

When collecting data, make sure you can identify whether someone is:

A local resident, or
A visitor from outside the area

Only the latter group should be included in your spending estimates.

Know how many out-of-towners attend your event

If you are using surveys to collect spending data, it is crucial that you know how many visitors attended our event from outside your area. Ticket sales data combined with ticket scanning at the event can be used to calculate visitor numbers. Ideally, when you make a ticket sale you will also collect information about where people usually reside. Don’t assume that ticket sales equal event attendees. Some people might buy tickets but not attend.

If your event is not ticketed, staff at entry points can use tally counters for a direct headcount. If you then randomly survey a sample of attendees and ask them where they came from (overseas, elsewhere in New Zealand, or from the local area) you can apply the survey proportions to the tally count to estimate the total number of out-of-towners.

If possible, separate NZ and international visitors

International visitors often spend differently from domestic visitors—especially on things such as accommodation, food, and transport. The Events Calculator can handle a single number for total visitor spending, but if you can break it down into:

New Zealand visitors
International visitors

…you’ll get a more accurate and insightful result.

You can also capture any spending by event vendors or crew who come to the event from outside your local area. These people are classed as ‘Other visitors’ in the Events Calculator.

Capture what people spend money on

Getting a total spend is useful — but knowing the breakdown of spending across different categories makes your impact estimate more accurate.

Try to collect spending across these categories:

Accommodation
Restaurants, cafés, bars
Food from supermarkets or stores
Other retail (clothing, gifts, gear)
Transport (public transport, taxis, rideshare)
Fuel for their own vehicle

The Events Calculator allows you to input spending by category and uses the data to produce a more accurate economic impact assessment.

Remember: electronic data misses cash sales

Card-spend data (like Marketview) is useful but not necessarily complete. Many events—particularly festivals, markets, sports events, and community gatherings—still have substantial cash takings.

If possible, use a data source or survey method that captures both cash and electronic spending.

Other things to consider

If some of the vendors at your event come from outside your local area, money spent at these vendors shouldn’t be included in your economic impact. Figure out what proportion of vendors come from within your local area and apply this proportion to spending at the event. The resulting amount can be inputted into the Events Calculator.

If revenue from event ticket sales go to an agency that comes from outside your local area, this revenue shouldn’t be included in your economic impact. Bear this in mind if you are surveying event visitors on their spending. If ticket sales are not included in your economic impact, when you ask visitors how much they have spent on the event, make sure to tell them not to include ticket purchases.

If you are using MarketView data to assess the uplift in spending in your area during an event, compare spending data from the time of the event with a similar period. For example, if your event falls on a weekend, compare it with spending on the previous or subsequent weekend. Hopefully you will see an increase in spending during the event. The increase in spending is what you need to calculate the economic impact.

Technical Appendix

Example survey questionnaire

Ensuring you only include visitors from out of your area

As already emphasised, local spending does not count towards and event’s economic impact. To ensure your survey only includes visitors from overseas or elsewhere in New Zealand, ask the following questions. You don’t need to ask respondents where in New Zealand or where from overseas they came from, but it can be useful in understanding who attended your event.

1. Where do you normally live?

<your Territorial Authority/Regional Council area> – do not ask any further survey questions
Elsewhere in New Zealand (please specify)
Overseas (please specify country)

2. How many people are in your group?

Adults: ___ Children: ___

Questions to estimate total spending

The Events Calculator can calculate economic impact based on an estimate of total spending for all visitors. Here are the questions you need to ask in a survey to calculate total spending. You can ask for a figure or offer respondents several spending brackets to choose from.

3. Please estimate the total spend for your group for this visit (in NZD). If unsure, your best estimate is fine.

At the event (includes entrance fees/tickets if this revenue stays in your local area) $ ______
Outside of the event but within <your Territorial Authority/Regional Council area> $ ______

Spending brackets might be as follows:

$0
$1 to $99
$100 to $199
$200 to $299
$300 to $399
$400 to $499
$500 to $749
$750 to $999
$1000 to $1499
$1500+

If you use spending brackets, when you are performing calculations on the results use the mid-point of the spending bracket chosen. Relatively narrow brackets, yield more accurate results.

4. Was this event the main reason for your visit to <your Territorial Authority/Regional Council area>?

Yes
Partly
No – do not ask any further survey questions

4b. If partly, approximately what % of your trip was spent at the event? ___ %

Question to estimate spending per visitor per day

Alternatively, the Events Calculator can produce results based on estimates of average spending per visitor per day and the number of days spent in your local area. Here is the additional question you need to ask to calculate average spending per visitor per day.

5. How many days did you stay in <your Territorial Authority/Regional Council area> for this event?

Day trip only (1 day)
2 days
3 days
4 days
5 days
6 days
7 days
8+ days

Question to estimate the composition of spending

The most accurate economic impact results can be obtained from estimates of the composition of visitor spending. Here is the additional question you need to ask to calculate the composition of visitor spending.

6. Please estimate your spend (in NZD) in each of the following categories for your group during this visit. This should include spending at the event as well as spending outside the event within <your Territorial Authority/Regional Council area> If unsure, your best estimate is fine:

Accommodation $ ______
Restaurants, cafés, bars $ ______
Supermarkets / food stores $ ______
Retail shopping (gifts, clothing, gear) $______
Local transport (bus, taxi, rideshare) $ ______
Fuel (private or rental vehicle) $ ______
Other local spending (includes event entrance fees/ticket price if this revenue stays in your local area) $ ______

The amount entered for each category should sum to the answers given in question 3. You can also use spending brackets for this question.

Using survey data to calculate inputs for the Events Calculator

Estimating total visitor spend

Once you have collected spending information on a sample of visitors you need to calculate the total spending of all visitors for input into the Events Calculator.

Calculate the total spend of survey respondents by totalling the responses to question 3 (total spend) above. If any visitors came to your local area only partly for the event, apply the proportion recorded in question 4b above to their spending. If any visitors did not come to your area for the event, their spending should not be included in the economic impact of the event. Remember to exclude any event attendees who came to the event from within your local area.

Then figure out what proportion of total visitors from outside your area your survey covered. If you know how many out-of-towners attended your event from ticket sales, summing question 2 (number of people in group) for people who said they came from overseas or elsewhere in New Zealand in question 1 above tells you how out-of-towners your survey covered.

If you only know how many people attended your event in total (including out-of-towners and locals), use question 2 (number of people in group) to figure out the proportion of survey respondents that were locals, from elsewhere in New Zealand, or from overseas.

Then scale up the total spending results to all out-of-town event visitors. For example, if you surveyed 10% of all visitors from outside your area to the event, and their total spend was $50,000, multiply the total spending result by 10 to get total spend - in this case $500,000.

Estimating total visitor spend per visitor type

Assuming you have collected survey data on where visitors come from (question 1 above) do the same calculations as above but do them separately for each visitor type – visitors from overseas and visitors from elsewhere in New Zealand.

Estimating spend per visitor per day

If you have collected survey data on how many days visitors spent in your local area (question 5 above) you can calculate spending per visitor per day by taking the response to question 3 (total spend), dividing by the response to question 2 (number of people in group), then dividing by the response to question 5 (number of days). Then average the result across all survey respondents from outside of your local area. Preferably do this for different visitor types separately. You can then input the total number of visitors (by type), their average length of stay, and their average spend per day into the Events Calculator.

Estimating the composition of visitor spending

If you have collected survey data on the composition of spending (question 6 above) you can calculate the proportion of spending across different spending categories. Calculate the responses for each category in question 6 (spend per category) as a proportion of the response to question 3 (total spend) and average the results across all survey respondents from outside of your local area. You can input the resulting percentages into the Events Calculator (preferably for each visitor type).