Economy and tourism

As part of the Impacts 08 research programme, the immediate economic impacts of the ECoC – on inward investment, tourism, employment and business confidence – were comprehensively explored.

Yet, a decade on from the event, it is difficult to frame any analysis of longer-term economic impact in the same, strictly quantitative way that much of the original research programme did. As such, the approach of our economic legacy assessment, 10 years on, is mainly qualitative, and focused to a greater extent on the visitor economy of the city than on the economic impacts of the ECoC more widely.

Visitor Survey

The Impacts 18 visitor survey is the main project for this theme and will consider the legacy that Liverpool’s year as ECoC has had in terms of the profile of visitors to Liverpool and their perceptions of the city and its cultural offer. It will build on a large-scale survey of visitors to Liverpool undertaken in 2008/09 under the auspices of Impacts 08 — creating a longitudinal dataset that facilitates comparison with data from 10 years ago, as well as with data from the 2015 Liverpool City Region visitor survey.

The Impacts 18 visitor survey will consist partly of questions that were asked by the Impacts 08 visitor survey (2008/09) and partly of new questions relating to perceptions of the city and its cultural offer and status. The survey will gather data on: the demographic profile of visitors; the ‘type’ of visitor (e.g. overnight visitor, day visitor, etc.); the motivations of visitors in choosing to visit Liverpool; the behaviour of visitors (what they choose to do, where they spend their time and money); and the perceptions of visitors.