7b Memo 2019 Maritime Economic Impact Analysis
COMMISSION AGENDA MEMORANDUM Item No. 7b BRIEFING ITEM Date of Meeting May 14, 2019 DATE: April 25, 2019 TO: Stephen P. Metruck, Executive Director FROM: Stephanie Jones Stebbins, Managing Director Maritime Joseph Gellings, Senior Planner SUBJECT: Briefing on the results of the 2019 maritime economic impact analysis EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This briefing provides the Commission with a summary of the "2019 Port of Seattle, Port of Tacoma, and The Northwest Seaport Alliance Maritime Economic Impact Analysis." It is the first such study to be performed since 2014. The study does not cover Aviation, which was the subject of separate study in 2018. The purpose of this study was to develop various metrics that convey the extensiveness of Maritime-related commerce for the three Ports within the overall economy of Central Puget Sound. The study results affirm the fact that port-related jobs are significant in number and can pay relatively high wages. FINDINGS The fundamental economic metrics that have been developed for every port line of business are: Total number of jobs Total labor income Total business output (business revenue) Total state taxes For the infographic below, the metrics featured for each line of business include some of the above and also selected metrics that have a special significance for a given line of business. For example, cargo volumes are featured for The Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA) and our record-setting number of passengers is featured for the cruise business. Template revised April 12, 2018. COMMISSION AGENDA Briefing Item No. 7b____ Meeting Date: May 14, 2019 Template revised September 22, 2016. Page 2 of 4 COMMISSION AGENDA Briefing Item No. 7b____ Meeting Date: May 14, 2019 In the case of commercial fishing, the infographic features the statistic of 1.3 million tons of seafood product being harvested by vessels that homeport at the Port of Seattle in 2017. Statistics about the seafood harvest caught by our vessels represent a completely new type of analysis compared with the studies of past years. This analysis was added to the study scope because the Port of Seattle is unique amongst the nation's major fishing ports in that it attracts a great deal of homeport activity from vessels that fish in distant waters. Other findings about the seafood harvest include: The revenues generated in 2017 by Port of Seattle vessels from fishing in Alaska -- $455.0 million represented 44% of all gross earnings from the North Pacific Fisheries. An estimated 72% of all commercially caught seafood biomass from the U.S. North Pacific Fisheries by tonnage and value was exported. Port of Seattle fishing vessel operator customers harvested catch (Alaska and non- Alaska) are equal to an estimated 13% of total U.S. commercial fisheries, by value, in 2017. To put the findings in the context of the overall local economy, the table below compares the total jobs figures to the corresponding figures developed in separate studies, including separate Washington industries. This study and the three separate studies were all performed by the same consulting firm. Scope of industry study Study Year (1) Total Jobs Washington's aerospace industry 2015 252,800 Washington's agriculture and food processing 2013 220,600 Washington's statewide maritime sector 2015 191,100 The combined Ports of Seattle and Tacoma and the 2017 83,600 Northwest Seaport Alliance(2) Notes: 1) Study years are the years of the economic activity that is being featured. In many cases the report is released one or two years after the activity that it features. 2) Excludes the impact of Sea-Tac International Airport ANALYTICAL APPROACH For the new 2019 study, the Port used a Seattle-based consulting firm, Community Attributes Inc. Community Attributes is widely acknowledged for their expertise in conducting economic analyses. The foundational sources of data used in the analysis were the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Washington State Employment Security Dept, the Washington State Dept. of Revenue and the Puget Sound Regional Council. A unique component of the commercial fishing analysis was retrieving Alaska Commercial Fishing Entry Commission licensing data using the specific roster of fishing vessels homeported with the Port of Seattle. Template revised September 22, 2016. Page 3 of 4 COMMISSION AGENDA Briefing Item No. 7b____ Meeting Date: May 14, 2019 A unique component of the cruise analysis was making use of a very extensive survey of cruise passengers and their spending profile in the Seattle area before and after their cruise voyage. That survey report is the "Port of Seattle Cruise Passenger Survey 2017," November 8, 2017 by The McDowell Group. In the end, Seattle area spending by cruise passengers was the largest component of direct impact for cruise, followed by local procurement of goods and services by the cruise lines, and Seattle area spending by crew members. With the 2019 study we are continuing a past practice of modeling impacts in a way that allows us to adjust the model for the next season's number of cruise calls and number of cruise passengers. Specifically, Community Attributes created a model that estimated the 2017 cruise impact based on an extensive data set from multiple sources that included a great deal of actual 2017 spending figures provided by the cruise lines. That model, in-turn, was applied to the recently-finalized 2019 cruise call schedule and passenger estimate. PORTS AND ECONOMIC IMPACT ANALYSIS Conducting economic impact studies is a common strategy to build support for an industry. In fact, economic impact analysis is particularly well-suited to some port lines of business considering that the Port, together with NWSA, manages cruise terminals and container terminals in the state. This simplifies the task of tracing economic ac tivity around the state to the terminals that make it all possible. The findings of the study, such as the number of jobs created by the ports, will be used in countless future public affairs and marketing efforts of the ports. Of course, numbers on their own have limited meaning, so citations of this study will be supplemented by other storytelling materials (videos, blogs, and paid promotions) being prepared by External Relations. ATTACHMENTS TO THIS BRIEFING (1) Presentation slides (2) Full report: "2019 Port of Seattle, Port of Tacoma, and The Northwest Seaport Alliance Economic Impact Analysis," March 2019 PREVIOUS COMMISSION ACTIONS OR BRIEFINGS None. Template revised September 22, 2016. Page 4 of 4
Limitations of Translatable Documents
PDF files are created with text and images are placed at an exact position on a page of a fixed size.
Web pages are fluid in nature, and the exact positioning of PDF text creates presentation problems.
PDFs that are full page graphics, or scanned pages are generally unable to be made accessible, In these cases, viewing whatever plain text could be extracted is the only alternative.