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Golden-hour view of a FLORA festival floral installation filling a historic Córdoba patio, visual anchor for this flora festival cordoba economic impact analysis

FLORA Festival Córdoba Economic Impact: The Real Numbers

FLORA charges no entry fee, yet Universidad Loyola Andalucía measured a €66.9M provincial economic impact in 2025. Here's how the multiplier actually works.

Portrait of María Fernanda González
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Ten years covering Córdoba's UNESCO heritage sites, sourcing from Junta de Andalucía documentation.

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FLORA's floral installations are free to walk through, yet Universidad Loyola Andalucía puts the festival's 2025 economic footprint at €66.9 million in production terms across Córdoba province.[1] The direct festival budget behind that number was just €613,031.[2] What separates those two figures is not marketing but a Social Accounting Matrix built specifically for the province[3], and knowing which of two different metrics a given FLORA figure belongs to is exactly what most coverage of this festival gets wrong.
2025 direct budget
€613,031
Public/private festival spending, 2025 edition[2]
2025 total visits
197,773
Recorded across FLORA's installations[4]
2025 economic impact
€66.9M
Production terms; €32.9M in GDP terms[1]

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FLORA costs nothing to attend. Its economic impact does not.

Entry to FLORA's floral installations is free[5]: no ticket line, no box-office revenue, nothing that would appear as festival income on a balance sheet. That absence of ticket revenue is exactly why the festival needs an economic-impact study at all: without one, the only number anyone could point to would be what the city and its partners spend to stage it, not what the festival actually returns to Córdoba's economy.
For the 2025 edition, the festival's eighth, that spending came to €613,031, split evenly between goods and services and salaries.[2] Universidad Loyola Andalucía's report, published in February 2026, puts what that budget generated at €66.9 million in gross-production terms for the province, equivalent to €32.9 million in GDP terms, plus 127 full-time-equivalent jobs.[1] Total visits over the festival's run reached 197,773.[4]
That gap, a budget just above half a million euros producing an output over a hundred times larger, is not evidence of inflated accounting. It is the entire point of an economic-impact study: to trace how an initial injection of public and private spending ripples outward into sectors that never appear on the festival's own books. Readers planning an actual visit should check the practical guide to visiting FLORA for dates, tickets and venues; this piece is about the money, not the itinerary.

How economists actually measure what a free festival is worth

Loyola's method is a Social Accounting Matrix (Matriz de Contabilidad Social, MCS), built specifically for Córdoba province and run through a multisectoral general equilibrium model.[3] That structure is what lets researchers separate a festival's effects into three distinct layers rather than reporting one blended number:
  • Direct effects: the festival organiser's own spending, on wages, contracted artists and site fitting.[6]
  • Indirect effects: what attendees spend because the festival exists, on hotel nights, restaurant meals, transport and shopping.[7]
  • Induced effects: the further rounds of spending, as the waiters, hoteliers and suppliers who were just paid spend those wages elsewhere in the local economy.[8]
Equestrian show at the Caballerizas Reales de Córdoba with Andalusian horses

Explore nearby · Monument

Caballerizas Reales de Córdoba

Philip II's 1568 Royal Stables, birthplace of the Andalusian horse. Evening show combining classical dressage, vaquera riding and flamenco. UNESCO heritage.

The underlying mathematics predates FLORA by decades. Economist Wassily Leontief's input-output tables, built to map how sectors buy from and sell to each other, remain the standard instrument for tracing how tourism spending cascades through an economy's supply chains.[9] The tourism multiplier effect itself, the coefficient measuring how much total economic activity a unit of tourist spending generates, was first defined by economist Harry G. Clement in 1961.[10] Get the boundaries wrong, though, and a report inflates itself: the most common trap in an event's economic-impact study is double counting, booking the same euro of spending under two different effect categories.[11]
Applied to FLORA, that discipline turns a hunch that the festival is good for tourism into a number a city council can budget against, and it is why the 2023 and 2025 reports, produced two editions apart by the same research team using the same model, can be compared at all.

From €613,031 to €66.9 million: how the multiplier works

Three ratios do the actual translating. FLORA's 2025 budget attracted tourist spending 16.16 times its own size, the efecto tractor ('tractor effect'), and earned media coverage worth 19.36 times that budget in advertising-equivalent value, the efecto de difusión ('diffusion effect').[12] On top of both, Loyola's general-equilibrium model found that every euro attributable to the festival generated €2.98 of economic activity across the province, unchanged from the ratio recorded the year before.[13]

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Two years earlier, the ratios were smaller but told the same story. The 2023 edition's tourist spending of €7.6 million was 15.2 times that year's budget[14]; its €6.7 million in earned media value was 13.4 times the same budget[15]; and its multiplier stood at 2.7, meaning every attributable euro then generated €2.70 in provincial activity.[16] Both ratios grew between 2023 and 2025: proof, in Loyola researcher Pilar Campoy's words, of an event reaching 'return ratios near three times its direct spending,' something she calls strategically relevant for territorial and tourism planning.[17]
The 2023 report also introduced the split that matters for reading every FLORA figure since: that edition's impact came out at €40.2 million in gross-production terms and, from the very same report, €16.4 million in GDP terms, two measurements of one edition, not two competing estimates.[18][19] The 2024 edition added €52.5 million in production terms and 103 jobs, though no GDP-terms figure appears in Loyola's published reporting for the 2024 edition.[20] Laid side by side, the three most recent editions show a clear upward line on whichever metric each of them actually reports:
EditionProduction termsGDP termsJobs
2023 (6th)€40.2M€16.4M59
2024 (7th)€52.5MNot reported103
2025 (8th)€66.9M€32.9M127

Where the money lands: hotels, restaurants, transport and jobs

Around 40,000 of FLORA 2025's visitors were directly linked to cultural tourism, meaning they came to Córdoba because of the festival rather than for other reasons, and their spending came to approximately €9.9 million, 60% of it from other Spanish regions and 40% from abroad.[21]
More than 80% of that spending went straight into the tourism sector, followed by retail, transport and food.[22] Loyola's 2023 report described the same pattern in broader terms: FLORA significantly affects services tied directly to tourism activity, accommodation, restaurants and transport, but its reach also extends into commerce and the rest of the supply chain behind them.[23]
The employment side of that spending is concrete: 127 full-time-equivalent jobs across the province from the 2025 edition, more than double the 59 jobs the 2023 edition generated.[1][24] Set against the whole of Córdoba province, FLORA's 2025 footprint equals roughly 0.13% of provincial production, 0.18% of provincial GDP and 0.21% of provincial employment, a single festival week moving a fraction of a percentage point that a city council can point to and defend.[25]

One edition, three editions, or an average? Reading FLORA's figures correctly

A separate study, published by economists Pilar Campoy and Luz Dary Beltrán through the Asociación Española de Ciencia Regional (AECR), adds a third kind of number to the pile: not a single edition's result, but a three-edition annual average covering 2022 to 2024.[27] On that basis, an average yearly budget of about €550,000 attracted roughly €8 million a year in tourist spending, translating into a total impact of €15.5 million a year, additional production of €42.2 million a year, and more than 61 jobs created annually.[28]
The AECR study's own ratios sit close to, but not identical with, Loyola's single-edition figures: an average production multiple of 2.7 times what was invested, a media effect 12.9 times the budget, and a tourist-spending tractor effect of 14.6 times the budget across those three years, with each edition adding roughly 0.1% to the province's production, GDP and employment.[29][30]
Loyola's own most recent report adds yet another aggregate on top of these: a cumulative 2023 to 2025 average of €53.6 million a year in production and more than 103 jobs a year, which is neither the AECR figure above nor any single edition's total, and should not be quoted as either.[31]

Is FLORA worth it, and is the return growing?

Córdoba's city council did not wait for three editions of data before acting on the first one. After the 2023 report landed, the council raised its annual sponsorship for FLORA to €400,000, a public bet that the return the study measured was real.[33] By 2025 that public money sat inside a total direct budget of €613,031, meaning the council covered roughly two-thirds of what FLORA spent before a single euro of multiplier effect was counted.[2]
The number behind that bet is FLORA's raw draw. The 2023 edition ran 11 days and drew more than 150,000 visits across its six exhibition-open days, despite rain that depressed turnout that year.[34] The 2025 edition, running 13 to 23 October across sites including the Palacio de Viana, the Patio de los Naranjos and the Archaeological Museum, drew 197,773 visits to a city of roughly 325,000 people, a visit count equivalent to more than 60% of the city's population, a scale comparison rather than a participation rate, since the total counts repeat visits by the same people alongside first-time ones.[35]
For scale, Edinburgh's International Festival, one of Europe's most established arts festivals, drew almost 400,000 spectators over about 24 days in 2010 and generated close to £21 million in impact on a production-terms basis, the same basis as FLORA's own headline figure, plus 437 jobs.[36] FLORA, run on a fraction of that budget and over less than half as many days, is already producing comparable output relative to its size.
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None of this tells a visitor when the gates open or which artists are showing this year; FLORA, the Festival Internacional de las Flores carries that detail. What the numbers tell a city weighing whether to keep funding a free festival is that the return has grown every edition Loyola has measured, on the metric that actually matters: real provincial economic activity, not a press release's rounding. For the wider story of how heritage-driven tourism is reshaping Córdoba's visitor economy, see our analysis of the Al-Andalus tourism boom.

Frequently asked questions

How much economic impact does FLORA festival generate for Córdoba?
Universidad Loyola Andalucía puts the 2025 edition's impact at €66.9 million in production terms and €32.9 million in GDP terms for Córdoba province, from a direct festival budget of €613,031.[1][2]

How is a festival's economic impact actually calculated?
Economists build a Social Accounting Matrix for the region and run it through a general-equilibrium model that separates direct spending (the organiser's own costs), indirect spending (what attendees spend because of the event) and induced spending (the further rounds of local spending that money triggers).[3]

What is the difference between GDP terms and production terms for an event's economic impact?
GDP, or value-added, terms count only the net new income created: wages, profits and taxes. Production terms also count the value of goods and services purchased along the way, which is why that figure is always larger. FLORA's 2023 edition measured €16.4 million in GDP terms and €40.2 million in production terms for the very same edition.[19][18]

How many jobs does FLORA create in Córdoba province?
127 full-time-equivalent jobs in the 2025 edition, up from 59 in the 2023 edition.[1][24]

Why does a free festival have a measurable economic impact if there's no ticket revenue?
Because the impact is never measured from ticket sales. It is measured from what visitors spend nearby because the festival exists: hotel nights, meals, transport and shopping. Free entry, if anything, maximises that kind of local spending, which is exactly what an economic-impact study counts.

How much does Córdoba's city council invest in FLORA each year?
The council raised its annual sponsorship to €400,000 after the 2023 impact report, out of a total 2025 direct festival budget of €613,031.[33][2]

How much do tourists spend during FLORA in Córdoba?
In 2025, around 40,000 visitors linked directly to cultural tourism spent approximately €9.9 million, with more than 80% of that going to the tourism sector and the rest to retail, transport and food.[21][22]

Is FLORA a good investment for the city of Córdoba?
By the metric Loyola's studies use, yes: every euro attributable to FLORA generated €2.98 of provincial economic activity in 2025, up from €2.70 in 2023, and the multiplier has held or grown every edition measured so far.[13][16]

Sources

36 references Show
  1. Universidad Loyola Andalucía, Feb 2026 report (opens in a new tab)

    “el impacto económico total de la edición 2025 asciende a 66,9 millones de euros en términos de producción, lo que supone una contribución al PIB provincial de 32,9 millones de euros y la generación de 127 empleos en el conjunto de la provincia.”

  2. Universidad Loyola Andalucía, Feb 2026 report (opens in a new tab)

    “El presupuesto directo de la edición 2025 ascendió a 613.031 euros, destinado en un 50% a bienes y servicios y en un 50% a sueldos y salarios”

  3. Universidad Loyola Andalucía, Feb 2026 report (opens in a new tab)

    “Para la estimación del impacto se ha utilizado una Matriz de Contabilidad Social (MCS) actualizada para la provincia de Córdoba en 2025, aplicada mediante un modelo multisectorial de equilibrio general, lo que permite cuantificar efectos directos, indirectos e inducidos con rigor metodológico.”

  4. Universidad Loyola Andalucía, Feb 2026 report (opens in a new tab)

    “En la edición de 2025, FLORA registró un total de 197.773 visitas en sus instalaciones.”

  5. Turismo de Córdoba (opens in a new tab)

    “Estas instalaciones florales efímeras pueden visitarse de manera gratuita.”

  6. SIBE (Sociedad de Etnomusicología), TRANS journal (opens in a new tab)

    “Efectos directos, o gastos de la institución en la zona de referencia, en aspectos como salarios, alquiler de salas, contratación de espectáculos, etc.”

  7. SIBE (Sociedad de Etnomusicología), TRANS journal (opens in a new tab)

    “Efectos indirectos, o gastos de los espectadores ligados al evento cultural.”

  8. SIBE (Sociedad de Etnomusicología), TRANS journal (opens in a new tab)

    “Efectos inducidos, o efectos de arrastre de los gastos anteriores sobre el tejido productivo local o regional a través del concepto de multiplicador.”

  9. El Periódico del Turismo (opens in a new tab)

    “las tablas input-output constituyen un instrumento idóneo para estudiar las relaciones intersectoriales del turismo”

  10. El Periódico del Turismo (opens in a new tab)

    “el Efecto multiplicador del turismo, estudiado por primera vez por Harry G. Clement en 1961, y que se define como: "Coeficiente que mide la cantidad de ingreso generado por cada unidad de turístico"”

  11. SIBE (Sociedad de Etnomusicología), TRANS journal (opens in a new tab)

    “se debe evitar el problema de la doble contabilidad, es decir, incluir en esta categoría alguna partida de gasto que ya esté incluida en la categoría anterior”

  12. Universidad Loyola Andalucía, Feb 2026 report (opens in a new tab)

    “un efecto tractor de 16,16 veces el presupuesto del festival y un efecto de difusión mediática de 19,36 veces”

  13. Universidad Loyola Andalucía, Feb 2026 report (opens in a new tab)

    “por cada euro atribuible a la celebración de FLORA se generan 2,98 euros de actividad económica en la provincia, manteniendo la ratio registrada el año anterior (2,98 euros)”

  14. Universidad Loyola Andalucía, 2023 report (opens in a new tab)

    “el gasto turístico vinculado al festival (7,6 millones de euros) resulta un efecto tractor de 15,2 veces el presupuesto de esta sexta edición”

  15. Universidad Loyola Andalucía, 2023 report (opens in a new tab)

    “comparándolo con el valor publicitario (6,7 millones de euros) alcanza un efecto de difusión de 13,4 veces dicho presupuesto”

  16. Universidad Loyola Andalucía, 2023 report (opens in a new tab)

    “por cada euro atribuible a la celebración de FLORA, se genera una actividad económica por valor de 2,7 euros en el conjunto de la provincia”

  17. Pilar Campoy, Universidad Loyola Andalucía (opens in a new tab)

    “cuando un evento cultural alcanza ratios de retorno cercanos a tres veces su gasto directo, estamos ante una iniciativa estratégicamente relevante para la planificación territorial y turística”

  18. Universidad Loyola Andalucía, 2023 report (opens in a new tab)

    “el impacto de FLORA 2023 en la economía cordobesa ha sido de 40,2 millones de euros en términos de producción total.”

  19. Universidad Loyola Andalucía, 2023 report (opens in a new tab)

    “Esta metodología ha permitido estimar el impacto de FLORA 2023 en 16,4 millones de euros, en términos de PIB.”

  20. Universidad Loyola Andalucía, Feb 2026 report (opens in a new tab)

    “cuyo impacto se situó en 52,5 millones de euros en términos de producción y 103 empleos generados”

  21. Andalucía Información (opens in a new tab)

    “cerca de 40.000 visitantes estuvieron directamente vinculados al turismo cultural, con un gasto aproximado de 9,9 millones de euros. El 60% procedía de otras regiones españolas y el 40% del extranjero.”

  22. Andalucía Información (opens in a new tab)

    “Más del 80% del gasto se concentró en el sector turístico, seguido de comercio, transporte y alimentación.”

  23. Universidad Loyola Andalucía, 2023 report (opens in a new tab)

    “FLORA afecta de manera significativa a los servicios relacionados directamente con la actividad turística (alojamientos, restauración y transportes), pero también al comercio y otras actividades de la cadena de suministros”

  24. Universidad Loyola Andalucía, 2023 report (opens in a new tab)

    “Este impacto permitiría generar, en total, 59 empleos en el conjunto de la provincia.”

  25. Andalucía Información (opens in a new tab)

    “El impacto global equivale al 0,13% de la producción provincial, al 0,18% del PIB y al 0,21% del empleo.”

  26. Cordópolis (El Diario) (opens in a new tab)

    “El festival contribuyó a que octubre de 2023 fuera el mes en el que más turistas vinieran a la ciudad, superando incluso al mes de mayo.”

  27. AECR (Campoy & Beltrán) (opens in a new tab)

    “con un presupuesto medio de unos 550.000 euros al año, el festival ha logrado atraer un gasto turístico cercano a los 8 millones de euros anuales.”

  28. AECR (Campoy & Beltrán) (opens in a new tab)

    “Esto se traduce en un impacto económico total de 15,5 millones de euros al año, que genera una producción adicional de 42,2 millones de euros y la creación de más de 61 empleos cada año.”

  29. AECR (Campoy & Beltrán) (opens in a new tab)

    “genera un volumen de producción 2,7 veces mayor a lo invertido, un efecto mediático 12,9 veces mayor que su presupuesto, y un efecto tractor de gasto turístico 14,6 veces superior a lo invertido.”

  30. AECR (Campoy & Beltrán) (opens in a new tab)

    “En términos proporcionales, cada edición de FLORA ha significado un aumento de aproximadamente el 0,1% en la producción, el PIB y el empleo de la provincia.”

  31. Universidad Loyola Andalucía, Feb 2026 report (opens in a new tab)

    “El análisis acumulado del periodo 2023-2025 muestra una contribución media anual de 53,6 millones de euros en producción y la creación de más de 103 empleos anuales”

  32. Universidad Loyola Andalucía, Feb 2026 report (opens in a new tab)

    “A valor real de 2025, el impacto económico de FLORA en la provincia ha aumentado un 27,4% respecto a la edición anterior y un 61,3% respecto a la de 2023”

  33. Cordópolis (El Diario) (opens in a new tab)

    “vamos a incrementar nuestra apuesta por Flora hasta los 400.000 euros anuales”

  34. Cordópolis (El Diario) (opens in a new tab)

    “La última edición de Flora, celebrada en octubre de 2023, se cerró superando las 150.000 visitas en los seis días de exhibición, en un año que estuvo marcado por la climatología lluviosa”

  35. Andalucía Información (opens in a new tab)

    “Entre el 13 y el 23 de octubre, cinco creadores internacionales intervinieron espacios emblemáticos como el Palacio de Viana, el Patio de los Naranjos o el Museo Arqueológico. El resultado: 197.773 visitas en una ciudad de 325.000 habitantes”

  36. SIBE (Sociedad de Etnomusicología), TRANS journal (opens in a new tab)

    “El FIE recibió en 2010 casi 400.000 espectadores en los aproximadamente veinticuatro días que dura. Generó un impacto de casi 21 millones de libras y un total de 437 empleos equivalentes a tiempo completo (ETTC).”