At 50, What Is The Economic Impact Of The Brooklyn West Indian Day Carnival?

Caribbean immigrants make up a large part of the black population in the US.

By NAN Business Editor

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Sept. 1, 2017: The West Indian American Day Carnival turns 50 this weekend according to organizers.

What is now clear is that at 50, the West Indian American Day Carnival Association cannot tell exactly what the economic impact of the mega event on the city of New York has been since the only study done in 2003.

Contrast that with the US Open, which measures its economic impact on the city annually even though its attendance is put at 700,000 – less than the one million plus the carnival parade estimates to attract each year as the biggest street party in North America.

The only study done on the West Indian American Day Carnival was done in 2003 by the Lugano Group, Inc. with funding from New York State.

At that time, researchers found that the total economic impact of the Carnival was almost USD 155 million.  By 2010, WIADCA estimated that on the basis of 3 million visitors, the total impact would have risen to almost US$304 million.

But seven years later, as the carnival turns 50, the total economic impact on the city of New York, home to 28 percent of the estimated 3 million plus Caribbean immigrants nationally, is still unknown.

And at 50, as it has in past years, sponsorship continues to be a hassle to keep the mega-event on the Eastern Parkway stage in Brooklyn New York, the heart of the Caribbean Diaspora in the United States.