Council to survey Sir Elton John concert goers on their experience

The concert drew a crowd of 20,000 to Carrington Park last Wednesday night, and Bathurst mayor Bobby Bourke said a survey will be released to ticket holders in the coming days.

"Ticketholders will be surveyed to determine information including where they travelled from, how long they stayed in Bathurst, what type of accommodation they utilised and expenditure during their stay," Cr Bourke said.

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"Council commissions economic impact studies for all major events and the information from the survey will be collated and provided to us in the coming weeks."

Bathurst Visitor Information Centre manager Dan Cove said last week that staff had served "large numbers of people looking to explore Bathurst and wondering what were the best options for a few hours or longer."

Western Region Institute [WRI] chief executive officer Kathy Woolley expects the key findings to centre around the movements of attendees before and after the concert.

"There's a variety of variables for council to consider, including whether visitors stayed overnight or ate out at local pubs and restaurants," Ms Woolley said.

"I went to the event with four people from Newcastle and one each from Orange, Cowra and Sydney, so it certainly generated interest and would have impacted on food and accommodation businesses in particular."

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Destination Country and Outback NSW commissioned an analysis last year into a Parkes event celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing mission, which also drew a crowd of 20,000 people.

"The analysis found the event added an estimated $4 million to the Parkes economy," Destination Country and Outback NSW general manager Lucy White said.

"Each visitor stayed an average of 1.7 nights and spent around $225.20 during their stay," Ms White said.

"The largest proportion of spending was on food and beverages."

However, the survey found 72 per cent of attendees at Parkes' moon landing event were non-residents.

In the lead up to last week's concert, Matthew Lazarus-Hall, the tour producer on behalf of Chugg Entertainment, confirmed that "around 7500 tickets have been purchased by non-Bathurst residents."