Boston Symphony Orchestra Generates More Than $166 Million Annually in Statewide...

Boston Symphony Orchestra Generates More Than $166 Million Annually in Statewide Economic Activity, According to New Study by Mount Auburn Associates

Third-Party Study Assesses BSO's Far-Reaching Role of Promoting
Business in Boston and the Berkshires, Driving Real-Estate Sales,
Enhancing Cultural Vitality, and Branding Boston as a World-Class City
BOSTON--(Business Wire)--
The Boston Symphony Orchestra, Inc., generates $166.7 million
annually in economic activity for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,
according to a third-party study conducted by Mount Auburn Associates
and released today by the BSO. Looking beyond the institution's
artistic value in Boston and the Berkshires, external researchers
examined the orchestra's tangential roles as an employer, a market for
goods and services, and a tourist attraction to determine the
institution's impact on such divergent areas as local hotels and
restaurants, regional real-estate markets, and the state's burgeoning
creative economy.

Mount Auburn Associates' research reveals that the Boston Symphony
Orchestra, Inc. - comprising the BSO, Boston Pops, and Tanglewood -
generates $28 million annually in visitor spending statewide and
another $138 million annually through its own business activities,
which include among other things, $33 million in wages and $43 million
in goods and services purchased across Massachusetts.

Complete copies of the economic impact study are available by
visiting www.bso.org/presskit or contacting the BSO Press Office at
617-638-9280.

In addition to these findings, the study also found that:

-- The BSO pays $33.2 million annually in salaries and wages to
1,186 full-time and part-time employees

-- Of the 1,480,822 attendees to BSO events during fiscal year
2006, 355,606 were visitors from outside the area

-- In 2006, the BSO had non-payroll expenditures of nearly $43
million. Of this figure, more than 56 percent went to
Massachusetts vendors, including $10.6 million to Boston
businesses and another $4.1 million to Berkshires-based
companies

-- The Boston Pops draws a fifth of its Symphony Hall audience
from outside Massachusetts and is ranked by the Greater Boston
and Convention and Visitors Bureau as one of the city's top
three attractions for convention visitors

-- The Pops' Independence Day concerts on the Charles River
Esplanade attract approximately 500,000 attendees, one third
of whom live outside of Massachusetts

-- When divided by industry sector, BSO and Boston Pops visitor
spending annually generates $22.7 million for food and
beverage businesses, $14.1 million for lodging, and $3.9
million for the real estate market in Suffolk County

-- The July and August months of the Tanglewood season account
for up to 70 percent of the annual revenue for many Berkshire
inns, hotels, and bed-and-breakfasts.

-- Tanglewood-related visitor spending generates $24.5 million
annually in Berkshire County.

-- A recent survey of Tanglewood patrons revealed that 14 percent
of respondents owned or rented a second home in the
Berkshires, and 58 percent of these named Tanglewood as a
primary or secondary factor in their decision. The BSO and
Tanglewood play a direct role in generating approximately $2.3
million in property taxes for Berkshire County towns through
second residency

The BSO is the world's largest orchestral operation and
Massachusetts' largest performing-arts organization. Attendance at all
BSO and BSO-produced concerts is estimated at nearly 1.5 million, and
the institution's endowment has topped $400 million, the largest of
any American orchestra. In fact, with an annual budget now exceeding
$80 million, the Boston Symphony Orchestra would rank among the top 85
companies in terms of revenue on the Boston Globe's "Best of
Massachusetts Business 2008" list, a compilation of the commonwealth's
leading businesses that does not include nonprofit institutions.

Complete copies of the economic impact study are available by
visiting www.bso.org/presskit or contacting the BSO Press Office at
617-638-9280.

Boston Symphony Orchestra, Inc.
Bernadette Horgan, 617-638-9285
Director of Public Relations
bhorgan@bso.org
or
Kathleend Drohan, 617-638-9286
Associate Director
kdrohan@bso.org

Copyright Business Wire 2008