TIFF - a profitable festival for Cluj

An already established festival such as the Transylvania International Film Festival is bound to produce money. However, the size of the event’s profitability is now revealed in concrete terms thanks to a study conducted by the Business Faculty from the Babes-Bolyai University (UBB).

The study focuses on three dimensions: funds invested in the local economy for the festival, local taxes generated by activities in connection with the festival, and the money spent by participants. The analysis revealed that, so far, the festival has had an economic impact of 7.5 million euro on the economy of Cluj Napoca. The vast majority of revenue can be attributed to the loyalty of the local audience, which represents approximately 80-85% of all participants every year.

The Cluj spectators take part on average at five days of the festival, being present at 1.42 events per day. By contrast, tourists, who come either from abroad or from other Romanian counties, tend to spend less time at the festival, but usually they attend at least two films per day.

Also, according to the UBB study, the latter are generally wealthy people and devoted fans of the festival, who, besides attending film screenings, are also willing to eat in town and make various purchases, all these in addition to accommodation they already pay for. Moreover, encouraging is also the fact that the number of TIFF spectators has grown constantly from one year to the other, reaching a new record in 2015, when no less than 73,000 tickets were sold and the overall number of recorded participants was 110,000, at all events, including the free ones.

Finally, according to the study, the festival is particularly popular among youths (72% of spectators are under 35 years of age) and among people with higher education (86% of spectators have a college degree).

Based on these figures, we can say that TIFF is not only a cultural event but also an invitation to invest in the city on the Someș. There are already many leisure areas or events in Cluj connected to festival, TIFF being an unequivocal source of pride for locals and therefore the businesses and initiatives that maintain the festival’s feeling alive all throughout the year are more than appreciated.  

Sources:

tiff.ro/stiri/impactul-tiff-economia-clujului-75-milioane-de-euro ;

tiff.ro ;