Festivals and their impact on the host community

The main issue touched upon in this paper is the effect a single cultural event can have on the host community. In this case, the event is a festival; the International Film Festival of Thessaloniki. The goal is to measure the impact of the Festival on the city. More specifically, the goal is to see what kind of impact the Festival has on the economic, the cultural and the social life of the city. In order to achieve that, the empirical part of the paper will deal with the analysis of data concerning the number of ticket sales and the number of visitors of the Festival, as well as data on other touristic indicators, such as the hotel occupancy rates, the museums admissions and the foreigners’ arrivals in the city. Other than the empirical part, the theoretical framework of the paper will serve as a basis for the data analysis. The main issues discussed at the theoretical part are the relation between the city and culture, urban economics and economic impact studies, cultural tourism and its benefits or not for a city and, in the end, a brief overview of the festivals as a single cultural event that can attract tourists to a city and generate income. The important about the theoretical framework is that the issues discussed are addressed in a sequence going from generic to specific. This allows to the reader a better understanding and a better introduction to the data analysis. Additionally, the background information on the city of Thessaloniki and the Festival itself are given as a point of reference for the better understanding of the reader.