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May 2005 The Wage of Aquarium
To generations of GSB students, Monterey meant the last stop before Pebble Beach. But 20 years ago, the introduction of a state-of-the-art aquarium on the city’s waterfront transformed Monterey into a tourist destination in its own right. As the years progressed, it was easy to see that the Monterey Bay Aquarium had stimulated the city and its economy. But to what extent remained a mystery, until one of the aquarium’s board members, a Business School student volunteer with the Board Fellows program, undertook a study of one year’s economic impact on the surrounding community. “In total, the aquarium is responsible for $260 million in economic activity in 2003, of which an estimated $250 million was in California,” wrote Andrew Rourke, MBA Class of 2005. He totaled direct, indirect, and induced spending related to the institution. “Of this, approximately $173 million was generated within Monterey County.” In addition, Rourke noted, the aquarium paid $2.7 million in state and local taxes and fees and stimulated additional hotel, sales, and income taxes. Only 5 percent of its visitors were from within the county, and with 433 employees, many of them in professional or research-oriented positions, the aquarium itself proved to be one the city’s top 10 employers. Rourke left the aquarium’s board of directors in December, but he remains a leader of the School’s Board Fellows program, which this year boasts 95 students assigned to the boards of 55 nonprofit organizations. |
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