Anna Rumer

The Desert Sun

More than $704 million injected into the global economy this year will come from the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Stagecoach Country Music Festival, according to projections announced by the Coachella Valley Economic Partnership and Greater Palm Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau on Tuesday.

Of the total spent internationally, more than $403 million will directly benefit businesses in the Coachella Valley with at least $106 million going to businesses in Indio specifically, said Michael Bracken, managing partner and chief economist of Development Management Group.

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The city of Indio will bring in about $3.18 million in ticket taxes, which is about 5 percent of its total general fund.

Bracken used data on transportation costs, ticket prices, where people are staying, what restaurants they're frequenting and how much they're spending on things such as gas, drinks and off-site entertainment in order to track how the 273,000 people coming to the Coachella Valley for these concerts spend their money.

Once he tracked festival-goers' spending habits, he was able to arrive at a measurable economic impact, he said, which was "not surprisingly" in the multimillion-dollar realm.

"I guess you could argue that we import money and we export, quite frankly, memories and some suntans," he said. "That's what our valley is good at and hopefully we'll always be good at that."

The last time a similar study was conducted was in 2012, when Indio first entered into its long-term agreement with Goldenvoice.

At the time, the study estimated that $254 million was spent by festival-goers in the Coachella Valley as a whole and nearly $90 million in Indio. Of that, the city raked in about $1.4 million in ticket taxes.

Since then, ticket prices have increased by as much as $100 and the concerts have drawn in about 7,000 additional people per weekend, leading to the increases announced Tuesday.

"We knew that the dollar amount figures were going to go up, but we weren't realizing how much they were going to go up," Indio Mayor Glenn Miller said. "It's just great news for economic development, not only for the city of Indio but also for the Coachella Valley."

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Having numbers available to them that aren't four years old is a huge advantage for the city, Miller added, as Indio can now drop multimillion-dollar figures in the laps of potential business owners and developers.

With the possibility of the concert's organizers, Goldenvoice, expanding its concert schedule from three to five weekends as is allowed in their contract with Indio, Miller said he believes the Coachella Valley has the opportunity to bring in new businesses and development that would make it more than just a weekend destination.

"I think that Indio and the Coachella Valley have a very bright future in the concert business and beyond," he said. "This really is a Coachella Valley concert based in the city of Indio."

Average total spending per person

Coachella Festival Stagecoach Festival Local $554 $424 Regional $985 $834 Driving distance $1,000 $849 U.S. flight $1,610 $1,451 International medium (Canada, Mexico etc.) $1,860 $1,680 International long (as far as Australia) $2,260 $2,080



Anna Rumer covers the Eastern Coachella Valley for The Desert Sun. She can be reached at (760) 285-5490, anna.rumer@desertsun.com or on Twitter @AnnaRumer.