Research Areas

The celebration of traditional holidays in the Valencian Community involves a great rise in demand in various current expenditures and investments that are made by several agents involved in organizing and sharing in these holidays, including visitors, organizers, media, sponsors, etc. The Valencian Community experiences an economic impact in income generation and job creation as a consequence of this rise in demand.

However, the visitor’s net impact on the Valencian economy only takes into account spending incurred by non-residents, since in the case of residents it is assumed that they would have made the same expenditure regardless of whether the celebration took place or not. As a result, the economic impact of many popular holidays that are of local nature and whose participants are locals or residents of nearby municipalities, would be null because they involve a transfer of costs within the Valencian Community.

Therefore, the aim of this study is to collect information to determine which traditional holidays are relevant to carry out an economic impact report. This analysis is done for both the internationally significant traditional festivals observed within the Valencian Community and those that have been designated as National Tourist Attractions, such as, Fallas, Sant Joan Bonfires, Magdalena, Misteri d’Elx, Moors and Christians, Tomatina of Buñol or Bous a la Mar of Dénia. The list is made up of 14 international holidays and 25 national ones.