By Tim Binnall
A new study examining how much money Nessie-related tourism contributes to the Scottish economy credited the creature with a rather whopping figure. The research was reportedly conducted by Gary Campbell, who is not only the director of the Official Loch Ness Monster Registry, but also just to happens to be an accountant. Those two characteristics probably make him the ideal candidate to conduct such a study, since he's acutely aware of the various revenue streams which may be impacted by Nessie tourism.
Throughout the summer, Campbell acquired information from a vast array of businesses operating on and around Loch Ness under the promise of confidentiality. Among the factors which informed his final figure were the number of visitors to the loch each year, many of those people take part in cruises to look for the creature, and reports from hotels as well as restaurants in the area. In addition to those areas of income, he also considered "day trippers" who make only brief stops at the Loch rather than staying overnight.
All told, Campbell concluded that the Loch Ness Monster contributes a sizeable 40.7 million pounds to the local economy, which translates to roughly 53 million American dollars. Amazingly, the Nessie researcher suggested that this figure is actually a conservative estimate and that the true value of Nessie to the community may be even higher. Sounding more like a marketing executive than an accountant, he marveled that the worldwide awareness of Nessie gives the creature "top global brand recognition that then helps steer tourists not only into Scotland but to come north to Loch Ness."
To provide a bit of paranormal perspective, this year's Roswell UFO festival was expected to generate $5.3 million for the city. Of course, that's not a perfect comparison, since the gathering of flying saucer enthusiasts is only a three day affair and, as such, the total amount generated for the city by way of UFO-related tourism could very well dwarf the Nessie numbers. Nonetheless, these figures should explain why we've been seeing more and more communities, specifically smaller towns, embracing their paranormal roots since, clearly, such connections can wind up generating significant cash.