Estimating the Economic Impact of the Busan ITS World Congress

This paper estimates the economic impacts of the 17th ITS World Congress on a host city, and Busan’s economy. Input-Out analysis is employed in order to estimate the impacts. The impacts are estimated in two accounts: Participants expenditure and Expenditure by Organizing Committee (OG). Three scenarios reflecting different levels of spending by OG and maximum/minimum number of expected participants/visitors are assumed. Employing inter-industry I-O framework, the impacts are measured in terms of production (sales volume), value added and employments (jobs). The results estimate the number of Congress attendees from 44,500 (7,500 from abroad) to 60,000 attendees (10,000 from abroad) and the amount of spending by the attendees from 3.1 billion to 4.1 billion won. To host the Congress, the OG needs to raise 2.8 billion to 8.1 billion won. The results also show that the Congress will generate a total of 828.8 billion to 1,195.1 billion won directly for the local economy as well as 337.9 to 494.0 billion won value added. It will also generate ranging from 970 to 1,390 local jobs. All in all, the results of this paper show that the Congress will bring a very positive impact on the economy of Busan.