Day 1 of the country's biggest primary school kapa haka competition, Te Mana Kuratahi, in Whakatū, Nelson, on 30 October, 2023. Photo: Supplied/ Te Mana Kuratahi
A new research project has found significant financial and well-being benefits flow from live performance in New Zealand.
According to the Massey University website, the research shows that the live performance sector contributed at least $17.3 billion in social and economic value to Aotearoa New Zealand in the 12 months to 30 June 2024.
The research was conducted by a team including staff from Toi Rauwhārangi College of Creative Arts, Massey University and Aotahi School of Māori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Canterbury.
Associate professor Dave Carter, Dr Catherine Hoad from Massey University and Professor Jani Wilson from Canterbury University worked on the project with a team of over 100 data collectors.
They collected 13,000 individual survey responses, Carter told The Sampler.
"The survey asked questions about who people were, their demographics, how many people they were attending with, and really crucially, what they were spending their money on."
One of the big findings of the report was that live performance motivated people to spend, Carter said.
"It doesn't just include the ticket price or even the glass of wine or beer that someone has at a theatre or a venue, but this whole suite of other spending, including things like going out to dinner beforehand, maybe what they spent on the taxi all the way through to money on babysitting."
The survey mined "granular data" on what audiences spend when they attend a performance, and how that money tracks through the whole economy, he said.
For each dollar invested by the community in live performance, $3.20 was returned in value the research found.
The $3.20 return was a combination of consumer spending and producer spending, Carter said.
"People that put on shows the money that they invest, and also government spending from local and central government, and then sponsorship and philanthropic giving, all that cash, when we track it through the economy, delivers a return of about $3.20.
"And that's made up of things like the taxes people pay, the salaries that are paid, the economic benefits that are generated by all those thousands and thousands of transactions."
The research used a calculator CBAx, devised by Treasury to measure the well-being benefits derived from live performance.
They found a "huge boost" to well being which they put a conservative dollar value of $7.5 billion for the research period.
Here was also a dose effect, Carter said, the more people attended live performance the greater benefit they experienced.
