OECD Culture and Local Development.pdf - PACA

2. LOCAL DEVELOPMENT BASED ON ATTRACTING VISITORS AND TOURISTS
Sector studies
Another approach worth mentioning here, although it is more frequently used to
examine the impact of a cultural sector at the national than at the local level, is to take
into consideration the importance of a cultural activity by looking successively at its
upstream and downstream phases. Thus, instead of starting with the tourist or the
visitor as the unit of expenditure, it begins with a monument or a show and all the activities
involved in its preparation. Here again, the reasoning is done in terms of expenditure
or employment, but the stress is often on employment. Studies of this kind are generally
commissioned to justify government funding, for they can identify the contributions of
culture to the organisation and development of employment within the territory.
Such studies are seldom done at the local level, because it is difficult to define
clear linkages between sectors, if only because the reduced scale of some cultural
sectors makes them sensitive to statistical validity problems.
- Our initial example has to do with production of a “cultural sector map”. A
sampling survey of the territory of Yorkshire and Humber revealed the weight
of the culture industry there (Bretton Hall, 2000). One-quarter of the 3000
enterprises in this region were polled, revealing that total cultural employment
stands at 100,000, of which 60% is full-time employment, 20% part-time, 14%
independent workers, and the remainder volunteers. More than half of the
firms have been in business for less than 10 years, and are concentrated
essentially in the two big cities of Leeds and Sheffield. Consolidated sales for
the culture sector represent 3.3% of business turnover in the region.
- A second example, which highlights the idea of the “cultural chain”, comes from
O’Connor’s study of the city of Manchester (O’Connor, 1998). In contrast to the
preceding method, he did not conduct a poll but rather interviewed a number
of key players, and supplemented this with statistical data and postal surveys.
He found that the share of the workforce employed in culture is 3.56% (or around
18,000 jobs), but when indirect and induced employment is added this percentage
rises to 6.41%. The dominant subsectors here are filmmaking, audiovisual, and
architecture.
Financial surveys
In contrast to the preceding methods, financial surveys focus only on profits or
sales. The specific contribution of such studies is generally to highlight the importance
of fiscal and export revenues for a given country.
- One illustration is found in the study of the financial statements of the theatres
in London’s West End, to illustrate the impact on the economy of the city and
CULTURE AND LOCAL DEVELOPMENT - ISBN 92-64-00990-6 - © OECD 2005 61