Critics and supporters of the 2010 Winter Olympics are as divided about the financial wisdom of hosting the Games one year following the opening ceremonies as they were in the years leading up to the largest spectacle that B.C. has ever hosted.
The highest estimate that critics point to for all spending on Olympics projects, venues and operations is roughly $7 billion.
That includes the:
- $2.05 billion Canada line;
- $1.84 billion total VANOC operation cost;
- $1 billion security budget;
- $1 billion Vancouver Olympic Village; and
- $883 million Vancouver Convention Centre among other costs.
Calculating the return on investment is as contentious a process as determining what projects should be considered Olympics-related. Representatives at many Olympics-related projects and in the tourism sector say things are progressing better than expected.
TransLink spokesman Drew Snider told Business in Vancouver that 38.5 million people boarded the Canada Line in 2010. That’s what the transit authority expected ridership to be three years from now.
About 220,000 people boarded the Canada Line each day during the Games. Snider said that number today is approximately 110,000.
Even anti-Olympics activist and No Games 2010 co-founder Chris Shaw told BIV that the money spent on the Canada Line “may turn out to be a worthwhile expenditure of public funds” – a major admission from someone who opposed virtually all the mega-projects connected with the Games.
He’s less kind when it comes to the Vancouver Convention Centre. That, he believes, should not have been built because most people in Vancouver will not use it and the convention business across North America is still suffering from the economic downturn.
Clare Smith, the convention centre’s vice-president of marketing, told BIV that in 2010 Vancouver hosted more conventions of 1,000-plus delegates – 25 – than in any previous year. It has 27 lined up for 2011.
In the years leading up to 2010, Vancouver hosted between 12 and 17 “city-wide” conventions, Smith said.
“These are record convention years for Vancouver.”
Each delegate is estimated to spend about $330 per day and the large conventions last an average of 3.5 days. So an average large convention of 2,500 delegates delivers a direct economic spend of roughly $2.9 million.
The 12,100-delegate Pacific Dental Conference was the largest convention that Vancouver hosted in 2010. The largest set to take place in 2011 will be hosted by the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in August.
Tourism officials similarly point to numbers to show how much easier it is to attract people to Canada today than it was in the years leading up to the Olympics.
The Vancouver-based Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) released a study February 10, which showed that marketing efforts in the U.K., Germany and Australia in 2010 were several times more successful than they were in past years. The CTC ran a marketing campaign in the U.K. in April and May 2010 and then surveyed people in that country to see who had seen the campaign and who was interested in visiting Canada.
In October, when those people who had expressed an interest in visiting Canada as a direct result of the marketing campaign were surveyed again, the CTC found that 290,000 U.K. travellers had booked flights to Canada. That’s double the conversion rate from 2009 and triple the conversion rate from 2008, said Greg Klassen, who is the CTC’s senior vice-president of marketing, strategy and communications.
“Of course you will get more tourists after the Games. You always get a spike. I don’t dispute that. Duh. It’s free publicity,” Shaw said.
Shaw believes people in the tourism sector should keep in mind two important factors: the tourism spike will fade and there was a negative economic impact when 15% of Metro Vancouver residents left town during the Olympics.
Metro Vancouver Commerce (MVC), however, released its own study in early February. The organization, which was funded by various Lower Mainland municipalities, aims to attract business to Metro Vancouver.
It estimated that the Olympics helped generate more than $300 million in economic development benefits in the region, which resulted in more than 2,500 full-time jobs.
According to MVC, 16 deals or contracts were signed, delivering $168.8 million in direct investment, including $146.5 million in one-time capital investments and special projects.
MVC’s report noted that the City of Vancouver attracted nine deals worth $85 million, which created 400 jobs.
The largest was Paramount Studios’ decision to film Mission Impossible 4 in the region.
But skeptics believe that the filming would likely have been done regardless of whether Vancouver hosted the Olympics because Hollywood producers are already familiar with Vancouver.