On-line journal no. 4 – July 2012 - Modelling the New Europe

On-line Journal Modelling the New Europe
Issue no. 4/2012
development, cultural impact, increase, visibility and the infrastructure impact. We have
decided on these two cities because we would like to better understand from two
perspectives, the role of ECoC in development of a geographical area For Sibiu case, we
would analyze the impact after the cultural year, while for Cluj-Napoca we will focus on
the impact and the regional development resulted before the ECoC title, a development
born throughout the simple desire of receiving the title of Capital of Culture. We also
preferred that the two cities to be cities of the same country and even more, cities from the
same region. We will consider both cities as being relevant for the region of Transylvania.
1. Economic Impact
One of the most important aspects of the ECoC is given by its impact on the hosting city
economy, which in all cases led to more or less sustainable economic development. This
category of impact is usually reflected in visitors’ expenditure, because they are a factor of
new money infusion in the local economy and also is reflected in new businesses initiated
by investors that redirect their activities to this kind of area because they are attracted by
the positive effects mirage of such an event.
In 2007, according to Mrs. Stela Matioc, in Sibiu the total effect directly attributable to
visitors staying was approximately 19 million EURO 6 . In the following table, based on
data of local economy turnover over two years (2006, 2007), we can observe an economic
increase of almost 10% in 2007.
Table 1: Economic impact of the ECOC - 2006 compared to 2007
Turnover of the local
economy
Production and cultural
services
€ 2006 € 2007 %
increase
9,398,786 10,109,335 7.6
Hotels and pensions 5,078,987 5,612,280 10.5
6 Information obtained from an interview with Stela M. Matioc-Head-office of the Chamber of tourism
promotion and development, City Hall of Sibiu
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