The week-long Farmers Insurance Open tournament in San Diego carried a $25 million economic boost when it was last studied in 2013.
San Diego State University tourism professor Carl Winston helped with that economic impact report, and he said the big dollar bump came even though the weather that year was bad.
Fog delayed play and cut into the prime time television exposure over that weekend.
Winston said this year's sunny weather came as snow was falling back east and that was a perfect contrast.
"Those sunny weather days have a very positive effect compared to cloudy or inclemental weather," Winston said.
Community Impact
The Farmers Insurance Open has a major positive impact on the San Diego community with our annual PGA TOUR championship:
• $24.66 million in economic impact
• $261,825 in sales tax revenue
• $341,864 Transient Occupancy Tax contribution
• 28,325 room nights booked
• 72 hours of TV coverage
• 41 million viewers of TV broadcast
• $4 million in Torrey Pines mentions during TV broadcast
• More than $2.8 million generated for San Diego charities
-Source: The Century Club
Winston said there there is no question the hours of network television coverage are a boost for the local visitor industry. That can come during the tournament but seeing sunny San Diego is most likely to help as people plan vacations in the future, he said.
"There is this sort of soft squishy commercial effect, where we've got sun and fun and the beach is showing. And we all just know anecdotally that there must be some positive impact from that," Winston said.
The economic analysis of this year's event should be complete in about a month, Winston said.
