Survey results soon from Old Spanish Days questionnaire

A survey taken in a variety of Santa Barbara locations during Old Spanish Days will be out soon.

The questionnaire was designed to find out the economic impacts from Santa Barbara’s largest event of the year, Fiesta.

UC Santa Barbara Professor of Economics Peter Rupert says he was thrilled to see the number of return sheets was higher than he anticipated. At first he expected about a thousand.

“We got about 1500 to 2000 surveys. We haven’t finished counting them yet. We had to do paper surveys for lots of reasons so it is going to take awhile to get those inputted but, once we get that done the analysis shouldn’t take that long at all,” said Rupert. “I am hoping within a month – two months at the outset.”

Rupert says the results will help the Old Spanish Days organizers with planning for the coming years. It will also help the city with its funding allocations for the event as part of its annual distribution of money for arts and activities.

The survey was conducted in person at key locations including the mercados, Fiesta Pequena, the Old Mission and within the business community.

The results will look at spending and income from hotels, restaurants and tourism.