CGE or SAM? Ensuring quality information for decision-making

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to conduct an economic assessment of the Aardklop National Arts Festival (hereafter referred to as Aardklop) by means of applying both the SAM and CGE methods, in order to ensure quality information for decision-taking. Data from a visitor survey conducted at Aardklop during 2010 was used for the analyses, which were executed using two regional (or place-specific) models (i.e. SAM and CGE models) constructed for South Africas North West Province. The results confirm that when these two economic impact assessment methods are applied to the same data-set of an event, the reported economic impact results differ significantly. This finding serves as a further warning to assessors that economic impact results can be misleading (if the underlying method and assumptions are not clearly stated and explained) and therefore their application should be handled with the utmost care as the results can readily be misinterpreted by stakeholders.