Macroeconomics' relevance to the Falmouth Oyster Festival

Macroeconomics is the section of economics that looks at the overall economy of a country. Factors such as the inflow and outflow of money, unemployment, gross domestic product, tax and inflation all determine what stage in the business cycle a country is in, ranging from prosperity, to recession, to trough and then lastly recovery.

Macroeconomics plays a large role in any business and would affect the Falmouth Oyster Festival. At the moment we are in a recession, meaning there is a rise in unemployment and a decline in the GDP and trade in and out of the country. The recession affects consumers in particular, and so consequently due to oysters being seen as a luxury item people may not want to buy them and spend money on something that may be seen as unnecessary. Also, going to the festival itself is not quite a luxury but it’s definitely not a necessity, therefore people may not attend in an attempt to save money. The recession may also affect local businesses that are looking to sponsor the festival as they may be less willing to give money because of the economic climate. However this was not the case for the Falmouth Oyster Festival as St. Michael’s Hotel and Spa did eventually become the leading sponsor.

Another way in which large scale economics may affect the Falmouth Oyster Festival is a rise or fall in the world’s supply or demand. Due to demand for fish and shellfish rising globally there is an increasing number of factory ships partaking in unsustainable large scale fishing, for example the Athena fish factory ship that caught fire just off the coast of Falmouth. This is depleting stocks for local fisherman resulting in an increase of prices in food such as oysters, therefore making it more expensive to produce the main ingredient of the Falmouth Oyster Festival.

A rise in unemployment may also be relevant to the festival, both in positive and negative ways. The positive of there being more people unemployed is that there may be more people to work on the set up of the oyster festival. However a negative might be there may not be as many people willing to volunteer due to more people in need of money and a sustainable form of income.

Taking all these factors in to account however, the festival was still the most successful in its fourteen year life-time, showing that despite the recession people still came and still paid enough for it to be a success. Global economics potentially may harm an event such as the Falmouth Oyster Festival; however it seems if there is the right amount of marketing and local resources on hand then it will still overcome the economic difficulties presented at the time.

Resources: www.falmouthoysterfestival.co.uk

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