Question

Forecasting Exercise Every year the U of I hosts the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival. Below you will find some issues that need to be forecast in order to provide the best experience possible to customers, develop effective plans, and deliver "profits" to businesses. How many schools (and students) will be attending? How many will attend Saturday night’s concert? (Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival Big Band) What will be room availability in Lewiston because of the festival? What should I charge for my hotel rooms during the busy weekend? Is there a threshold? How much more should Casa Lopez be ordering for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday? What will the economic impact be to the city of Moscow? Select two or three and write a double-spaced paper telling what you forecasted and how you came up with the forecast you made – discuss the mechanics of how you would develop your forecasts. The specific numbers are not as important as demonstrating a well thought out approach to your forecast.

Answer 1

Answer:

In order to forecast for how many schools (and students) will be attending, what will be room availability in Lewiston because of the festival, what will the economic impact be to the city of Moscow; one can use the moving average method of forecasting. Since the event is held every year, the organiser needs to have the past data. On this past data, one can perform the 4 year moving average by taking into consideration the various situations and constraints of that particular year. A moving average is a technique that calculates the overall trend in a data set. For the question, how many schools and students will be attending, the moving average will provide the actual number that could possible attend the event. Previous year’s data will show the class and type of attendees who had booked the rooms in Lewiston and the availability of room in that year during the festival. Depending upon the number of attendees and the enthusiasm for the event among the public for the current period, it will be easier to forecast the availability of the rooms in Lewiston. Economic impact of the event to the city will be calculated from the past data and the current economic situation of the country.