Bollywood awards offer economic boost to Tampa

Organizers of Bollywood's annual awards said Tuesday that the first US edition pumped more than $26 million into Tampa, Florida, as visitors flocked to the song-and-dance extravaganza.
The International Indian Film Academy, releasing figures for the April 26 event, said that 23,594 people watched the main event at Tampa's American football stadium and that two-thirds of them came from outside Florida.
The study estimated that direct and indirect spending, including tourists' shopping and dining, amounted to $26.4 million. Hotels in the Tampa Bay area earned more than 62 percent additional revenue compared with the same day the previous year.
The organizers said that 90 percent of visitors were of South Asian descent and a majority were women.
Bollywood holds its annual awards overseas each year in hopes of demonstrating the international appeal of the prolific Hindi-language film industry.
The direct impact in Tampa was more lucrative than recent editions of the Bollywood awards other than the 2011 ceremony in Toronto which attracted 56,000 spectators.