Today in “smallish countries raking in boatloads of cash,” a UK lobbying group called the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) has reported that nightlife is responsible for £66 billion dollars of the UK GDP. Or, as of today, close to $104 billion. In other words: raves are lucrative as hell.
The NTIA’s Forward Into the Night report took into consideration the income of clubs as well as pubs, restaurants, and bars to conclude they generate 6% of the UK’s overall income. Apparently, the report was generated to prove to naysayers that the regions’ “night-time economy” is not “a seedy, unpleasant cousin to the day-time economy,” according to a Telegraph article hilariously entitled “Clubs and bars are vital revenue generators for UK economy, not hotbeds of bing drinking and drug abuse.” So get that image of menthol-laden surgical masks and LED-fingertipped drug gloves out of your mind: boozers and ravers—or “night-time economists,” if you will—are supporting that country’s income in the form of cold, hard quid.