The cash was spent by a record attendance of 23,000 people, around 12 times the population of the town.

Number-crunchers hired to survey visitors at this year's four-day celebration discovered that their average spend and stay in the area was way above what was forecast.

The figures have delighted members of the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival committee, who hope the results could help pave the way for securing future funding.

Festival chairman Roger Goodyear said: "The fact is that we can be very proud that our festival is having this kind of impact on the economy. It is an impact not only on this region but the whole country.

"Although we have tried to estimate the economic impact in the past, this is the first time that we have had the work done professionally, and we have discovered that the impact is much greater than the £1.5 to £2 million we had estimated."

The survey team used tried and tested formulae to produce their results: they took into account each person's individual spend on the day they visited the festival, and also established how long people were staying in the area, to calculate overall spending.

The festival received funding from EventScotland – the national agency set up to promote Scotland as an events destination – to appoint survey professionals, and although the report has still to be finalised, it is already showing very positive results across the board, says the chairman.

Visitor numbers, which include spectators and participants, have been put at in excess of 23,000. The festival's previous best year was 2006, when around 18,000 people attended.

Mr Goodyear said: "We were set targets by funders, and one of those was to bring more people into the Aberdeenshire and Moray area. The previous best that we achieved was 24%, and on this occasion we got over 37% of visitors from the rest of Scotland, south of the border and overseas.

"We received funding from Event Scotland to promote the event outside the region and outside of Scotland, and it seems to have spread the word about the festival to an even broader audience.

"Event Scotland funded the research on the basis that it would give extra evidence of the effectiveness of the festival, and from a funding point of view, it underlines the validity of it.

"I think Homecoming has definitely been of benefit. Homecoming has taken a bit of a bashing from some critics, but I have to say that I believe it has worked, and from our point of view it has worked very well."

The boat festival was expanded into a four-day programme this year to mark Homecoming, and was visited by the Princess Royal and First Minister Alex Salmond.

Around 40% of those who attended were repeat visitors who, said Mr Goodyear, keep coming back time and time again because of the way the programme changes and evolves every year. The major challenge for the committee is to increase its repeat business figures in the years to come.

"The follow-up phone calls, notes and e-mails have been great. We take the knocks, but the number of negative comments that we have had has been very small.

"Around 80% of the people questioned said that the festival was either excellent or good, so we really do seem to be providing the type of event that people want," said Mr Goodyear.

l.carter@banffshire-journal.co.uk

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