“Weather always helps,” said the event’s publicist, Ann Mort, referring to the unseasonably cool temperatures. It was believed hot weather discouraged attendance last year.
“Even though the balloons couldn’t fly Friday (due to high winds), we still had a lot of people,” she said.
Attractions like the tethered balloon rides, the pancake-flipping breakfast and the pair of hot-air balloons shaped like bees helped bring people to the event, she said.
Considering this year’s success, the Ohio Challenge will likely maintain the same two-day schedule next year, running a full festival on Friday and Saturday only, Mort said. Next year’s Challenge is scheduled for July 16-17.
Mort said organizers would work to “streamline” the shuttle service from Hook Field airport to Smith Park. She noted “a lot of folks came all at once.”
According to an economic impact report prepared by Mort, 88 percent of the surveyed guests came from within a one-hour drive. That’s an increase from last year’s figure of 72 percent. Organizers attributed the increase to the “staycation” trend, where people stay close to home instead of paying for traveling expenses in the poor economy.
The report stated that increasing numbers of people hear about the event through word of mouth (25 percent) or go the festival out of tradition (32 percent). Mort said many visitors are making a family tradition of the Ohio Challenge, as they have done with Light Up Middletown, the city’s Christmas display.
The $4.4 million impact on the local economy was calculated using a “conservative” multiplier of $65 spent per person on gasoline, food, lodging and other expenses.
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