INTRODUCTION ooo [i February of 2004, the Association francophone de Nanaimo (AFN) presented the fourth edition of the Nanaimo Maple Sugar Festival. This five day Festival celebrates the historic and cultural heritage of Francophones in Canada through a wide variety of activities including traditional music, dance and the sampling of traditional food. Now in its fourth year of existence, the Festival has grown from a small event receiving 3,000 visits to an event attracting 8,000 to 10,000 visits. At the request of festival organizers, the Société de développement économique de la Colombie- Britannique (SDE), a francophone economic development organization, commissioned Muse Strategic Solutions for Business to conduct this economic impact study. Funding for this study was obtained from Western Economic Diversification. The principal objectives of this study are to reveal the profile of festival participants and to measure the economic impact of the festival on the local economy. A profile of the participants was established by analysing the participant survey results. The economic impact was calculated by determining the amount of new money that the Festival brought into the community and the ripple effects of this new money. This included visitor spending, new money spent by Festival organizers to host the event and the appropriate multiplier effects. The scope of work undertaken to support this study includes: @ Research on festival history @ Research on winter tourism and cultural tourism in Nanaimo and BC @ Research on multipliers @ Analysis of Festival financial statements @ Creation, distribution and analysis of participant survey @ Calculation of economic impacts @ Evaluation of non-economic impacts Nauaime Maple Sugar Festionl 2004; A study of CCONOITC and non-economic impacts on the Nanatine area 5