Coachella Valley economy struggling, but improving
The local economy is still struggling, but there are signs of improvement.
That’s the report out of the 2012 Coachella Valley Economic Summit.
About 800 people gathered in Indian Wells Thursday to listen to guest speakers and financial leaders breakdown the state of the local economy and what lies ahead.
The Coachella Valley Economic Partnership organized the annual summit.
Regional economist Doctor John Husing delivered his economic report for 2012.
He said the valley economy is slowly coming out of the recession.
He gave it a grade of C-plus — a slight improvement over his C last year and — a C-minus two years ago.
“Do I wish it would move faster? Yeah. It isn’t going to. It can’t. Too much went wrong in this recession and it’s just a slow process. Mostly of people, companies and governments working off debt. And that just takes a long time,” said Husing.
Husing says tourism is way up — along with agriculture which is coming off one of its biggest years in the Coachella Valley.
A report on the economic impact of the Coachella and Stagecoach music festivals was also presented at the summit.
The report was prepared by Maryland-based Development Management Group,
which worked with the CVEP and concert organizer Goldenvoice “to identify the
impact of the concert series locally, regionally and globally,” CVEP
spokeswoman Traci Rees said.
It showed the festivals generated $502 million globally and $254 million for the economy in the Coachella Valley.
“This report really helps quantify the impact in terms of business and dollars for our valley and really highlights the fact that these concerts are becoming the No. 1 economic drivers in the Coachella Valley,” said CVEP Chief Operating Officer Wesley Ahlgren.
