Tourism and Technology Thursday - Carolina's Festival Industry 2008-2012

This is a presentation I give annually to both the North Carolina Association of Festival and Events and the South Carolina Festival and Events.  This year's presentation is a five year retrospective of the festival industry in the Carolina's (2008-2012).

2012 Carolina's festival overall results from Wayne Smith

Three future trends that arose from the presentation are:

1. How festivals address sponsorship is shifting.  Sponsorship is moving from philanthropy to a more marketing orientation.  Festival planners by large have yet to figure out how to accomplish this shift;
2. Variable pricing is going to become a hot button issue over the next few years.  With many of the current revenue streams available to festivals flattening and costs still rising, ticket prices are going to become a primary source of income.  As such, strategic pricing is going to be introduced into this realm on a more frequent basis;
3. Forecasting is currently a weakness across festival management.  In order to be more accurate in predicting revenue and costs, there is a need to become more sophisticated in festival managers approach to forecasting.