Official events during the 2012 South by Southwest Music and Media Conference had a $190.3 million impact on the Austin economy—roughly $23 million more than in 2011, according to a new study by Greyhill Advisors, an economic analysis and development consulting firm which has offices in Austin.

Greyhill Advisors and City of Austin officials announced the results of the study during a news conference at Austin City Hall Oct. 4.

"I feel like I'm starting to sound like a broken record," Greyhill Advisors partner Ben Loftsgaarden said. "We expected to see a plateau, but growth was really the theme for South by Southwest in 2012."

Study results

Loftsgaarden said the impact study included the following statistics:

• Official participants grew 15 percent to 302,700
• Festival attendance expenditures generated $116.6 million of the $190 million economic impact. Ninety percent of the $116.6 million was nonlocal spending.
• Sanctioned parties and events grew by 200 percent and had a $14 million impact
• SXSW booked nearly 11,000 hotel reservations totaling more than 50,000 room nights—a 13 percent increase
• SXSW Edu attracted more than 2,000 registrants—a 250 percent increase over its inaugural year

Analyzing the $190.3 million

The $190.3 million can be broken down into direct, indirect and induced impacts.

The study found that SXSW had a $125.8 million direct economic impact, which includes "expenditures directly injected into the local economy by SXSW, official sponsors, attendees and exhibitors."

SXSW had a $35.7 million indirect impact through increases in sales, income and jobs associated with companies that benefit from SXSW expenditures.

SXSW had a $28.7 million induced impact through spending by people who earned more as a result of the festival.

Reactions

During the news conference, Mayor Lee Leffingwell praised SXSW as an important cultural event for the city.

SXSW Executive Director Mike Shea said the organization could not be happier with the results.

"It's the best-attended South by Southwest ever," he said. "It's worth mentioning the numbers stack up against major events nationally and around the world.

"The last Super Bowl in Indianapolis was assessed at generating $155 million. That would be $35 million less than SXSW 2012. We've kind of got our own little Super Bowl of creativity and culture going on right here every year. We're glad to be a part of that."

Shea noted that Greyhill only measured the effects of official events. The impact of unsanctioned events that take place during SXSW was not part of the calculations.