Understanding the Eden Effect: Local Economic Impact of the Eden Project

The Eden Project in St Austell in Cornwall is based in a worked-out clay pit, which houses buildings including two vast greenhouses (biomes) and the Core – an education centre. The biomes are homes for plants from around the world and are used to explore our dependence on nature, and to illustrate the way in which people form an intrinsic part of the natural world.

Eden is gearing up to celebrate its contribution of £1 billion to the Cornish economy, from its opening in March 2001, to the end of 2009. This amount excludes visitor spend at Eden itself, but includes off-site tourism related business in Cornwall and the rest of the region.

Community Involvement

Annual events have been held to thank the local community for their support; for The Eden Project recognises that it would not be able to sustain its visitor numbers without the local infrastructure.

During the winter months the Project targets the local audience, through initiatives such as price promotion and activities like ice skating. It recognises the influence that the local community has on visitors to Cornwall, and how vital it is to keep them connected to Eden itself.

Contribution to the local economy

Since the beginning of the Project, Economic Impact Studies show that Eden has brought over £900 million to the local economy. The economic model (based on the Cambridge Tourism Economic Impact Model) calculates the additional spend of visitors, who say they were ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ influenced by Eden to holiday in Cornwall. It takes into account visitor’s expenditure off the site, the spending of the project on supplies and services, and tourism related businesses which benefit from spending by visitors to Eden.

Eden employs nearly 500 staff, and estimates that a further 3,000 jobs have been sustained locally due to its continuing success. The benefits are also felt by Eden’s 2,500 local suppliers and a range of other businesses such as hotels, restaurants, bed and breakfasts, pubs and taxis.

Partnership Working

In 2007/8 the total available income was £22.3 million, of which some 75% came from visitor related income at the Eden site, 17% from fundraising activity and 8% from other activities such as concerts, functions and consultancy. All revenue is generated by the Eden project itself, while the majority of capital investment is generated externally, with key funding coming from, among others: Millennium Commission; Regional Development Agencies; EU funding (objective 5b and Objective1);  and a host of charitable donations and trusts such as, Entrust, Wolfson, Wellcome and Sunley.

Eden is supporting Cornwall’s campaign for the creation of a designation which is similar to ‘European Capitals of Culture’, but can be applied to rural areas – potentially to be known as ‘European Regions of Culture’.

Eden attributes much of its success to its close working relationships with the local community, as well as with the tourism industry and cultural agencies – “Eden is an attractor within the destination of Cornwall and no organisation works in isolation, we are all inextricably linked”.

International visitors

7% of visitors to the Project are international and there is a 10% awareness of Eden in English speaking countries, compared with 80% in the UK. The international visitors are very likely to have already visited the UK at least once before, prior to going to Cornwall. The main countries they come from are Germany, The USA, Australia and The Netherlands.

Ongoing Sustainability

Eden recognises the importance of sustainability, and takes into account the economic, environmental and social benefits and impacts when making decisions.  For example, it increases promotions during wintertime when local unemployment is high, to encourage more local and holiday visitors. These efforts minimise the impact that seasonal variation could have, both on the Project, and the tourism related businesses which also support the visitors during this period. 

Eden monitors its impact through a research programme, which carries out one of the largest ongoing sample surveys within a UK tourist organisation; to date over 150 000 people have participated. The programme focuses on visitor profile, but also includes ongoing education evaluation, and monitoring of sustainability impacts. The research approach has enabled the Project to better understand its visitors, to monitor performance (in terms of marketing, operations, retail and the impact of narrative and education programmes) and obtain funding by reporting the extent to which they achieve their aims...the Eden Effect.

Website

www.edenproject.com

Contact

Andrew Jasper
Tel: 01726 811900
Email: ajasper@edenproject.com