When
the elephants thunder into Philadelphia in 2000, the
vibrations are expected to shake an incredibly bountiful
money tree, showering dollars all over the region. In
San Diego, where the Republicans last met, business leaders
still bask in the 1996 convention's glow. "We look at the
convention as a weeklong television commercial for your city
as a destination," Salvatore Giametta, a spokesman for the
San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau, said in an
interview this summer. .
. . . . According
to the Greater San Diego Area Chamber of Commerce, the
four-day convention attracted 30,000 visitors who spent $26
million on hotel rooms. But there has been no follow-up
study to show the convention's broader effect on the San
Diego economy. .
. . . .
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
The economic impact of the Republican National Convention
will almost certainly exceed $125 million in direct spending
on hotel rooms, meals and the like, along with at least
$175 million in spinoff benefits (emphasis added), David
L. Cohen said yesterday. Cohen, Mayor Rendell's former chief
of staff, is cochairman of Philadelphia 2000, the committee
formed to woo a political convention.
The estimate is based on a Federal Reserve Board study of
the economic blessings felt in Chicago from the 1996
Democratic convention, with a little extra figured in for
four years' worth of inflation, Cohen said.
"There is no convention you can host that has a greater
economic impact than a national political convention," he
said. "Most people agree the only thing you can host that
has a greater economic impact is the Olympics."
. . . . .
Despite the lack of data, San Diego "absolutely" would host
a convention again, Giametta said. "We think it was good for
the tourism industry without a doubt."
Brian Ford, an accountant for Philadelphia 2000, said that
insisting on a study to prove that Philadelphia will benefit
mightily from the GOP meeting "is like saying you need a
study to show that a car works."