The Fur Rendezvous which is locally known as the Rondy or Fur Rondy is a big part of the traditions and history of the Anchorage. In the middle of the 1930’s, Anchorage was considered to be just a small town that had almost three thousand people and the area was from the Ship Creek to Park Strip. The Fur Rendezvous has a big economic effect at Anchorage. In addition, it encourages friendly competition.
Economic Effects of Fur Rendezvous
The festival is not only vital in growing the identity of the community but the celebrations also attract a healthy increase of money at Anchorage. The festivals aim at boosting the economy of the community by extending the seasonal income (Publication Consultants, 2013). The economic impact of the festival at Anchorage is simple where people come from within and outside the town to spend money that goes directly to the local economy. In other words, tourism is what encourages the festival and the more that the town can offer in terms of tourism make it more attractive. The festival acts as a form of advertising the town to the outside world in the hopes that people would be attracted to settle at Anchorage and that foreign investors would be interested in joining the community. Tourism at Anchorage is beneficial to all businesses that are of all types including tour companies, restaurants, and hotels. These businesses benefit in terms of visitor dollars. Other forms of businesses also benefit from tourism such as farming businesses, finance, and construction businesses. The money that is usually generated from the festival helps in ensuring its sustainability. The tourist spending in the town has an impact on other sectors which are linked to the tourism sector. The tourists need to get access to accommodation and they also require to buy drinks and food. Therefore, the spending by participants boosts other businesses in terms of increasing revenues and thus helps to improve the local economy.
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However, the Fur Rendezvous festival also has a negative effect on the local economy in terms of encouraging the local community to be heavily dependent on the festival. The success of the event determines the economic success of the town. It means that the festival puts the town at the risk of heavily depending on it for its economic survival. Considering the fact that the festival only occurs once in a year, depending on it to ensure the success of the economy can result in an economic downfall. In addition, high dependence on tourism results in more impact on the economy is the festival is not a success (Anchorage, 2018). The seasonal nature of the festival also creates more risks of developing economic problems. The heavy dependence on tourism, especially during the festival creates problems that often face seasonal workers such as job insecurity. There is no guarantee that they would maintain employment from one season to the other. Such insecurity and unpredictable nature of the festival can have negative effects on the economy.
The festival is also considered to be a high-cost investment to the community (Wolfe, 2014). The festival is estimated to cost one million dollars in terms of operational fees. In turn, it supports more than twenty non-profit organizations in the community. Other costs that are related to the festival include the infrastructure costs. The local government and the taxpayers have to put up a lot of money so as to organize the festival. Other costs include those involved in improving the roads and other infrastructures to attract people to the festival. Public resources are mainly focused on the expenses of the festival and thus reducing the investments of the government in other crucial areas of the economy such as health and education. The need to get more finance is seen in the price hikes. Businesses also tend to take advantage of the increase in the flow of the tourists as a result of the festival. The price hikes have a negative effect of the local residents whose income do not increase in a proportionate manner ( Ali-Knight, 2009 ).
Conclusion
From the analysis, is a big part of the traditions and history of the Anchorage and also has major economic effects. The festival aims at boosting the economy of the community by extending the seasonal income. More specifically, the festival acts as a way of advertising the town to the outside world in the hopes that people would be attracted to settle at Anchorage. It also aims at attracting that foreign investors would be interested in joining the community. Tourism at Anchorage is beneficial to all businesses that are of all types including tour companies, restaurants, and hotels. However, the Fur Rendezvous festival also has a negative effect on the local economy in terms of encouraging the local community to be heavily dependent on the festival. The success of the event determines the economic success of the town. It means that the festival puts the town at the risk of heavily depending on it for its economic survival. The festival is also considered to be a high-cost investment to the community. The festival is estimated to cost one million dollars in terms of operational fees. In addition, there are other costs that are attached to the festival such as the cost of infrastructure.
References
Ali-Knight, J. (2009). International perspectives of festivals and events: Paradigms of analysis . Oxford: Elsevier Science.
Anchorage. (2018, 10 12). Anchorage . Retrieved from Anchorage: https://www.anchorage.net/about-visit-anchorage/tourism-pays/
Publication Consultants. (2013, 02 16). What Happens During Fur Rondy? Retrieved from Publication Consultants: http://www.publicationconsultants.com/what-happens-during-fur-rondy/
Wolfe, D. A. (2014). Innovating in urban economies: Economic transformation in Canadian city-regions . Toronto : University of Toronto Press .
