The Consumer Surplus and Economic Impact of a Participatory Micro-Event: The Beech Mountain Metric

We measure both the economic impact of a micro-event on the local economy and the consumer surplus benefits to participants using stated preference methods. We focus on a local participatory bike race called the “Beech Mountain Metric” (BMM), an amateur road bicycle event. We find that the economic impacts of the BMM declined from $301,000 in 2014 to $185,000 in 2016 as the event lost popularity. The consumer surplus to participants fell from $11,000 to $6000. The consumer surplus benefits are most likely relatively low in magnitude because there are many bike races in the region to choose from including Blood Sweat and Gears and the Blue Ridge Brutal, both more popular races. Considering the stated preference model, we replicate Whitehead and Wicker (Int J Tour Res 21:180–186, 2019) using the willingness-to-travel approach. Using an intensity of preference correction can mitigate for hypothetical bias, but using only individuals who are “definitely sure” about return visitation will overcorrect the problem. This result suggests that the definitely yes and the sum of the probably and definitely yes probabilities provide a useful estimate of the range of return visitation that could be used in micro-event planning.