This year's Boston Marathon generated more than half a billion dollars in economic activity and supported thousand of jobs, the Boston Athletic Association and Meet Boston announced. The bulk of the economic activity generated by the marathon came from visitors — mostly spectators — spending money on travel and accommodations as well as food,

The Boston Marathon drives more than $509 million in state and local economic activity during Patriots’ Day weekend.

The Boston Marathon delivered a more than $500 million economic windfall to the Massachusetts economy this year.

To probably no one’s surprise, the world’s most iconic marathon brings in quite the (long) haul for the region. A new UMass report shows that this year’s Boston Marathon with about 500,000 spectators and more than 30,