Creative industries in a regional city: How much work is lost to rivals based elsewhere?

Abstract

The ability to exploit the fruits of agglomeration in metropolitan environments may foster the perceived superiority of metropolitan vis-à-vis rural creative industries practitioners. Based on a unique survey conducted among the business community of the regional city of Townsville, the article quantifies the industry linkages between the creative industries sector in the regional city and the city’s wider business community; and the share of demand for creative industries services/products generated in the city that is sourced elsewhere: the import leakage. The import leakage – estimated at a quarter – is a yardstick for the competition that the industry faces from creative industries practitioners based elsewhere. The article shows that policies that reduce the import leakage have considerable impact on gross business income of the local creative industries sector.