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08/06/2006Cash flows, but is it due to festival?TRAVERSE CITY — Jennifer Rohde and her friend Michael Geiger spent $84 on tickets for the Traverse City Film Festival. But the Detroit-area visitors had to think a little longer when asked how much more cash they expect to drop during their cinematic sojourn. "We'll probably spend at least $500, mainly on food," said Geiger, a culinary student who looked forward to tasting the region's fare and browsing downtown shops when the two weren't checking out movies. From restaurants to motel rooms to rental cars and retail goods, festival-goers are poured money into the local economy over the past week. It's difficult to separate the event's financial impact from the typically-busy summer tourist season in northern Michigan, but there's plenty of anecdotal evidence to indicate the Film Festival's economic punch. "We definitely have picked up a lot of business from the Film Festival," said Amy Bennett, station manager for the National Car Rental office in Traverse City. By July 31, National's entire 250-vehicle fleet was booked solid from Thursday to Sunday. "We don't usually sell ourselves out," Bennett said. "We're happy about the business, though." Some businesses said the Film Festival topped off a typically busy time of the year. Workers at the Park Place Hotel downtown said the historic inn was 80 percent booked before the Film Festival started, but quickly filled up through the weekend. "We've seen a lot of sold-out weekends this summer," hotel general manager Amy Parker said. "July was a record-breaker for us." Others said it's difficult to gauge the festival's impact until they look at their entire summer season, but expect to see an uptick in activity over the past week. "It's certainly helping our occupancy," said J. Michael DeAgostino, a spokesman for the Grand Traverse Resort & Spa in Acme. Festival organizers also said it's difficult to quantify the economic impact of the fledgling festival. "There's nothing scientific; we don't have a survey or anything," festival co-founder Doug Stanton said. "It certainly brings a lot of people into town and when they're not going to movies they go shopping and go out to restaurants." Stanton says the festival eventually hopes to document the event's economic impact with research in conjunction with the local Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau. But that research is probably a few years down the road. Operators of several downtown restaurants and coffee shops said business has been very strong during the festival. "We've been pretty steadily full of people all week," said Danielle Bassett, manager of the Mackinaw Brewing Co. brew pub and restaurant downtown. "About half the people we've had in here are headed to a movie," she said. Some downtown retailers also said they saw sales activity pick up during the week. "That past few days we've been a lot more busy," said Sylvia Maly, a sales associate at Plamondon's Shoes on Front Street. "It's been wonderful." Others aren't sure the festival adds to the summertime business they do anyway. "Honestly, I don't know if the festival has that much impact on us," said Jonathon Cooley, manager of Mr. Bill's Shirt Co. downtown. "It's just that time of the year." Diana Milock of Torch Lake lives close enough to Traverse City to drive to the Film Festival. But she and her husband Richard, who are festival sponsors, booked a downtown hotel room for eight days just to make sure they took in all the action. "We can walk to anything. It's absolutely great," Milock said. "There are so many movies, you hate to drive back and forth and miss anything."
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