Social and economic impacts of Oktoberfest

Big events like festivals or carnivals have been increased as being social or
cultural tourism attractions and being a great image for destinations. The
tourism market is in a continue competition worldwide, meaning that ,the
promotion for the events requires proper marketing strategies based on an
improved understanding of tourists from the target market. (Xiaoyang Yang,
2011).
The main case of this study is the Oktoberfest event. The characteristics of this
event are social and economic impacts of Oktoberfest.
The economic impact is referring to the estimated price of additional
expenditure achieved within specific area, being a reaction of the event staging.
(Anon., 2008)
The social impacts are the effects of the host communities influencing the
tourists in one way or another, and influencing the tourism industry. (Coastlearn,
n.d.)

The history of Oktoberfest

This festival started with de wedding ceremony in 1810, of the Bavarian crown
prince Ludwig to Princess Therese of Sachsen-Hildburghausen. (Xiaoyang Yang,
2011). To close the events of the wedding and the festivities, horse races were
organised and because of the decision to repeat this races, the Oktoberfest was
raised. In the year of 1811, citizens were taking part of the first Agricultural
Show. Its meaning was to increase the agriculture in Bavaria. Today, the horse
races, which was a popular and an old event, is no longer held, but the
Agricultural Show is still happening every three years. (Anon., 2005-2015)

Also, in 1818 the visitors were able to buy and drink the beer from small stands,
which started to rise in numbers. In 1896 the beer stands were replaced with
beer tents and halls for the first time, enterprising the lords with the publicity for
the breweries. In the 1870s the festival started to be really famous and to
increase the economy of Germany. (Anon., 2005-2015)
Today, The Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany is the largest folk festival and the
main festival of other 2000 Oktoberfests from all over the world. (Xiaoyang
Yang, 2011)
This event takes place from the end of September to the beginning of October
every year. The Oktoberfest event, is popular for the German traditions, the
Bavarian beer, traditional food and costumes presented during the festivals and
the hospitable Bavarian people. Today, the mixture of ultimate electronic
systems with tradition from Bavaria is making the biggest attraction in Germany
in that time of the year. (Xiaoyang Yang, 2011)
According to the event organiser, the festival is welcoming about 6 million people
every year coming to see and discover the Bavarian traditions. (Xiaoyang Yang,
2011)
Economic outcomes
Economic impact measurement has become a powerful and persuasive tool for
those looking to capture and evidence the financial benefits that can result from
the hosting of a major event. Measuring economic impact not only allows public
sector bodies to evaluate their economic return on investment, but it also
demonstrates how events drive economic benefits - allowing event organisers
develop practices which maximise these benefits. (Anon., 2008)

According to CNBC, during the last few years, the brewers industry was
decreasing, leaving space for the wine and spirits industries. The Oktoberfest
numbers are showing that the beer is still loved by many people, in certain
regions. Having a look on the breakdown of the economic impacts of the beer
festival, it can be said that the beer lovers spent almost 954 million euros
(approximated .1.4 billion dollars) during the Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany.
Every year, about 55 percent of the people are coming back to live again the
experience from this event. Creating this event takes a lot of work and also lots
of people are working at this event. This festival, creates 12.000 jobs, which
8.000 are permanently, every year. (NBCUniversal, 2015)
Oktoberfest festival it is happening in many countries all over the world, like
United States of America, China, Canada or Mexico.
The world second biggest Oktoberfest Event is in Blumenau, Brazil. According to
Skyscanner website, in Blumenau take place over 6,000 miles away from Munich
in Santa Catarina, Brazil where over 700,000 revellers come together to
celebrate Bavarian culture and German ancestors. (Skyscanner, 2002-2015)
Media has a great involvement in this big event by promoting it really well. Loads
of websites, news-papers, magazines, and even the IPhone Company is
promoting The Bavarian Beer Festival.
The IPhone is releasing an application called Oktoberfest.de which offers
information about the most offer beer, the map of the Oktoberfest, with
particular details about each tent. (Anon., 2005-2015).
The social impacts
World-wide, people are considering the festival as being an excited leisure
activity, and also, these festivals can be related to tourism. Local festival are

great opportunities for social, cultural, and leisure experiences. (Gardi, 2015).
Providing an entertainment festival needs a lot of work. Most of the events-hosts
are relying on volunteering work. For the Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest, 450
year-round volunteers and 1,300 community and service club volunteers are
dedicating themselves for this event. As Oktoberfest is now a global event,
visitors from all the countries are attending to this event, especially in Munich,
which results in a large sociocultural significance to the local community. (Gardi,
2015).
The costume process is taking place on the first Sunday of the festival and
approximately 700 of participants are making a parade on the streets of the City
Centre of Munich. They are presenting with pride the diversity of local, regional
and national costumes.
On the second Sunday of the Oktoberfest, an open-air concert is arranged,
involving 400 of the Oktoberfest bands. Traditional songs and dances are
performed by the volunteers in the interest of enjoying the people which are
present at the event. (Vistawide, 2004)
Most of the people attending to Oktoberfest are not there for the first time.
According to Wirtschaft, 2013, people were asked if this is the first time they are
attending to Oktoberfest. The responses were amazing: 22 per cent were the first
time there and 78 per cent said that this is not their first time, and that they
have come several times at Oktoberfest. The younger generation tend to visit
the festival more than one time than the older generation. (Wirtschaft, 2013)
The Oktoberfest is a festival which people are attending in a big group (it can be
family and relatives or it can be a big group of friends). Over than 95 per cent
from the people present at this event want to share this experience with friends
and family and only 5 per cent are coming on their own. (Wirtschaft, 2013).

The negative impacts of the Oktoberfest

Being the biggest beer festival from all over the world, there are some risks of
consuming a really big amount of alcohol, which leads us to intoxications.
After the Oktoberfest 2014, 600 guests were treated for alcohol poisoning, being
a feature of the city. The beer poisoning is not only the biggest risk at this event.
Also the exhaustion, cuts or bruises are regularly treated in the hospitals from
Germany after this event. According to the BRK (Bavarian Red Cross), 7,900
people of whom 3,600 had to see a doctor and 800 were transferred to the
hospitals. The numbers of hurt people are increasing from every year. (MunichRE,
n.d)
The risks of a terrorist attack plays a significant role in this section of negative
impacts. Particularly, after the bomb attack of 26th of September 1980 in which
13 people were killed and 211 were hurt, the security is really strict. The financial
losses in the case of an attack are huge but can be covered but require and
explicit agreement but the insurance companies. (MunichRE, n.d)
Most of the accidents that are happening during this festivals are involving rides
and the other attractions. Insurance for all the funhouses or fairground rides is
mandatory for all show people and publicans. (MunichRE, n.d)
Another negative impact of the Oktoberfest is the traffic and the parking. Traffic
jams are often happening near Munich because of the visitors which are choosing
the car option because they think is much cheaper than flying by plane. The
parking is terrible outside the Munich, not to mention what is happening inside
the city. The capacity of the most of the Park& Ride is for over 570 cars, so, the
number of people is over the numbers of the parking places. (Oktoberfest.de,
2015)

Conclusion
Despite the fact that the Oktoberfest has no marketing or sponsorships activities,
is still the largest and successful event world-wide and economically stable. Until
today, after all these years of the tradition of the Oktoberfest, the
comprehensive social and economic impacts have contra balanced the negative
aspects on this event, raising its popularity every year.
As a result of the success and the positive perception as being a enjoyable event,
more and more cities are adopting the Oktoberfest image to have a typical
German beer festivals with traditional costumes and food making the
Oktoberfest known as the biggest beer event all over the world. (Verlag, n.d.)

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