The Eurovision Song Contest 2018 has just finished with the winner announced – the Israeli pop star Netta Barzilai. This year it was hosted by Lisbon after the last year’s victory of the Portuguese singer Salvador Sobral. Several studies highlighted the beneficial effects of the event on business in the capital as well as Portuguese tourism as such.
Before the event, Turismo de Portugal launched a promotion campaign targeting the markets of Spain, France, Germany, United Kingdom and United States of America. The organization even filmed 43 movies all over the country, taking “the best arguments of Portugal” to a market of 200 million viewers.
In one-minute films, Portugal displays the diversity and quality of its tourism offer, an action outlined to ensure that each region is promoted in the market that is most interesting for that location, for instance the Azores are shown by the United Kingdom contester, the Finnish artist filmed in the region of Algarve and the German delegation did it in Madeira. The campaign represented an investment of 200.000 Euros but it was worth it.
According to the report published by eDreams, as a result Lisbon has seen a 37% increase in tourists compared to the arrivals recorded last year during the same period. The figure is significant and further exceeds the already excellent numbers recorded by Kiev last year. The Ukrainian capital saw an increase of 20% in terms of visitors.
The flight reservations data between 7 and 13 May revealed that 29% of the visitors were French, followed by Germany (18%) and Spain (10%). Visits from Brazil increased almost three times, Finland (+281%) and Sweden (+157%) also saw significant increases. An increase of 14% was also recorded for flights from Italy.
Tens of thousands of people from all over the world arrived to the Portuguese capital. About a thousand of them were part of the 43 national delegations including the artists. More than 1500 were represented by journalists and press employees. Lisbon officials estimated that, among local inhabitants and international travelers, there were about 100,000 people attending the event.
Other impressive statistics are provided by the Airbnb booking platform. In terms of its own circuit, the company recorded an impressive increase in bookings equal to 83% compared to the same period last year. The well-known portal revealed that the typical reservation for the Eurovision included groups of 2-3 people, staying in Lisbon for 6 nights. The average rate per room per night was about 65 euros.
French visitors lead the ranking of Airbnb travelers. It was followed by fans from the UK, Germany and Spain, but also the USA, Netherlands and Brazil. Moreover, very few accommodation facilities were left free: only 15% of the total available ones.
These are dizzying numbers, which any European capital would envy. This also goes hand in hand with what was declared by Mayor Fernando Medina during the inauguration of the Eurovillage. At the inauguration it was declared that the beneficial effects of 25 million euros were estimated, as well as an increase in tourist tax revenue of 5 million euros.
Eurovision 2018 Results