 "Photo: Drew Smith")
This year's South by Southwest festival drew at least as much as last year's revenue of $38 million for city businesses, according to the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau. Last year's conference was the biggest in the festival's 21-year history, and participation for this year's festival was even larger, with the number of music artists increased to 11,000 from around 10,200 last year.
In the past few years of its exponential growth, SXSW has become more profitable to Austin's economy than other popular public events such as Austin City Limits Music Festival, which brings in $27 million, and UT home football games, which bring in $23 million annually, according to the bureau.
The festival, the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo, and the University Interscholastic League basketball tournaments bring more than half a million tourists to Austin every March, said Lisa Koenig, spokeswoman for the Austin Bergstrom International Airport, which had 1,200 more incoming flights than the annual daily average on the first Saturday of SXSW.
"This year's festival was definitely larger," said Elizabeth Derczo, spokeswoman for SXSW music and film who has worked for the conference for 14 years. "All three parts have gotten more international, and more businesses have come to show off their wares."
In a vote earlier this month, the Austin City Council gave SXSW Inc. a $90,000 fee break this year which covered most of the costs to block off Sixth Street for 10 days. That action won't have much of an impact on the festival profits, Derczo said.
"Our profit estimate is really moderate," said Beth Krauss, spokeswoman for the visitors bureau. "SXSW really benefits the Austin economy all across the board. I've seen the tourism numbers and economic impact rise in my two years here."
Official numbers on this year's profits will be available within a month, Krauss said.
SXSW Inc. works with many hotels in Austin to book large blocks of rooms for participants. About 80 percent of the rooms in the downtown Hampton Inn and Suites were occupied by SXSW participants, 60 percent of the rooms specifically booked by the conference, said Don Jackson, director of sales for the hotel.
"We see quite an increase during everything that's going on including the UIL basketball tournaments and the Star of Texas Rodeo," Jackson said. "All these events bring a great demand to the hotel industry."
Once events like SXSW get tourists into town, they start seeing everything else Austin has to offer, said Rose Reyes, director of music marketing for the visitors bureau.
"It's clear that over the past 20 years the SXSW conference has really put Austin on the map as a music town," Reyes said. "While [fans are] here they don't just do music, they go to the rodeo or the Bob Bullock museum and enjoy all the restaurants. That's good for the business community as well as the music community."
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