Richard lll brings almost 60 million to city
The discovery of King Richard lll brought in more than £59 million to Leicester’s economy, from the time of the discovery to the reinterment, according to an independent assessment - including £4.5 million generated during the two weeks of reinterment activities.
Leicester City Council appointed Focus Consultants to carry out an economic impact assessment of the discovery on the tourism and visitor economy. They looked at the period from September 2012 to 20 March 20 2015, leaving out the time of the reinterment which they say would have an unprecedented impact on the city, unlikely to ever be repeated.
Focus analysed a range of indicators including the number of retail businesses established in the city compared to the region; the growth of accommodation and food services; visits to other local attractions including city museums and heritage sites; and hotel occupancy. This was in addition to looking at the King Richard lll attractions in the city.
They calculated that the additional visitors attracted to Leicester as a result of King Richard lll was more than 600,000. They found this had resulted in an increased visitor spend of more than £54.5 millon.
Focus found that around 1,000 full-time equivalent jobs could have been created in the city as a result of the discovery. This is based on a formula developed by Deloitte and Oxford Economics, which states that for every £54,000 spent in the local economy, one new job is created.
They also looked at the value of volunteering to the economy, establishing that more than 8,000 hours worth of volunteering were given, equating to a value of approximately £144,000.
Additional figures provided by the University estimates that the value of media coverage obtained was £12 million (equivalent advertising value), with 366 million people around the globe given the opportunity to see coverage of the discovery and reinterment.