Estimating a crowd of more than 400,000 during the back-to-back U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open Championships at the Pinehurst No. 2 golf course, officials at the Pinehurst-Southern Pines-Aberdeen Area Convention & Visitors Bureau believe the golf tournaments will have at least a $169 million economic impact on the local and state economies. Boosters say this year, thanks to the U.S. Golf Association and N.C. State University, on-site surveys will be conducted during the days of the two tournaments to calculate the actual spending and economic impact.
“While tourism models can help a destination on the front-end estimate outcome totals, there is no substitute for first hand data-collection that provides actual spending numbers and helps clarify important spending patterns by visitors to the Opens,” says Caleb Miles, with the CVB.
The group’s estimate of key spending categories to come up with the $169 million number include 41 percent from lodging, 25 percent from food and beverage, 14 percent from retail purchases and 12 percent from recreation/golf. The remainder comes from transportation and other categories, according to the report. Tickets sold through the USGA are not counted in the economic impact projections.
The U.S. Open is going to be broadcast to more than 100 million people in 180 countries, with more than 44 hours of live coverage domestically on NBC, ESPN and Golf Channel.