The benefits of the Eurovision Song Contest to Malmo? Money! how about race relations?

Friday, 05 July 2013
As the politicians continue in their traditional political retreat in Visby during the  Almedalsveckan in which politicians and their parties score and loose points, reports emerged that Skåne in Southern Sweden  and especially Malmö won big in their hosting of the Eurovision Song Contest last spring.

The managers of the Region Skåne and Malmö City present their estimated to politicians and the media on Friday as the political and economic debates and prognostics continue to circulate during the Almedalsveckan.

"For Scania (Skåne), this meant an opportunity to create jobs and growth to the region. We received a lot of positive reply in the media when it came to showing off Skåne and Malmö as an attractive city for events," says Ingrid Bengtsson Rijavec, Acting Regional Director of Region Skåne.

Malmö and Skåne spent nearly Skr28 million for the song contest not including the budget of about Skr125 million for Swedish television broadcasting. But today they present a new calculations showing gains citing increased tourism revenues in Malmö and Skåne region worth Skr185 million.

And the PR value was great. For Sweden as a whole, it is estimated that nearly Skr1.1 billion was gained. It was good for Sweden, but surely its best to Malmö, a city that has not been having the best of news especially it relationship with racial integration, persistent repudiation of Jews among others.

Johan Hermansson, tourism director for the city of Malmö, do not believe that the positive effect of Malmö is short. On the contrary, he believes.
"Yes, we can probably be pretty sure that it is good for Malmö in the long term. The picture we have been able to read out in the press around the world has been very positive, and we have already seen that the demand has increased when it comes to adding meetings and travel to our region and city," says Hermansson.
by Scancomark.com Team