Pavilion generates £16m a year says survey

The survey was explained to invited guests this morning by pavilion director Alan Haydon.

The Creative Impact study has been published at a time when a Rother working group is looking at what grant aid the district council should give the De La Warr Pavilion Trust when the current 500,000 a year, five-year agreement expires next March.

The study was commissioned by the De La Warr Pavilion Trust with the Hastings and Bexhill Economic Alliance in partnership with regeneration agents Sea Space.

It was undertaken by sam:culture and the University of Sussex.

The Grade One Listed buidling re-opened in October 2005 after its 9m refurbishment funded by Arts Council Lottery, Heritage Lottery, English Heritage and SEEDA.

At a glance, the study says that in 2006-2007, the pavilion:

*Attracted 576,000 visits of which 418,000 (72.7%) were by people from outside of Rother

*Generated media coverage with an estimated value of more than 3.5m

*Spent more than 1.6m on goods and services of which 267,000 was retained within the Rother economy

*Generated 4.6m for the hospitality sector from visitors from outside Rother of whih 2.9m was retained in the district.

*Generated more than 2m in retail sales to pavilion visitors, of which 1.27m remained in the Rother economy.

*Generated nearly 1.5m income for hotels, self-catering accommodation and campsites, of which 900,000 was spent in Rother. This equates to nearly 42,600 bed-nights in Rother plus 68,000 overnight stays with friends and relatives.

The study shows that visitors to the pavilion over the year spent more than 4m on food, shopping, transport and accommodation.

It says the change from being Rother-run to being operated by the pavilion trust means 600,000 of new revenue investment is going into the pavilion each year, halving the previous cost to the local taxpayer.