Harness racing events in Sweden attracts in between 5 000 to 10 000 visitors each weekend during summertime with the Solvalla International “Elitlopp” in Stockholm as the biggest event with 50 000 visitor over two days.
For smaller regional harness racing venues the industry and its events is quite often used as part of destination marketing. However there are no previous examples of the overall significance of the industry at regional levels and specifically the tourism economic impact of the industry at regional level.
The purpose of this study is to estimate the tourism economic impact of harness racing at regional levels using the case of DalaTravet (DT) Rättvik, in Sweden as a case. The study uses register based data as well as data from a questionnaire study conducted at six of the DT Rättvik events during summer season 2014. In total a sample of 444 respondents are used in the analysis.
The results of the study indicates that the turnover related to the harness racing industry at the regional level amounts to approximately 31.1 Million SEK of which 11.1 MSEK is counted as tourism economic impact.
This paper contributes to the literature on tourism impact analysis of specific events in smaller regional areas. The results of the study may be of use for tourism and regional planners in regions with a harness racing venue.