A money-maker?

After Lena Meyer-Landrut's victory at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest, the German city of Dusseldorf managed to beat its competitors Hanover, Hamburg and Berlin for the honor of hosting the show in 2011.

The city on the Rhine is opening up its soccer stadium for the event, which culminates in a live finale on Saturday, May 14.

Preparations at the stadium started six weeks in advance, which meant the local Fortuna football club, which normally plays its home matches there, had to relocate to a temporary stadium nearby which seats 20,000 fans and cost 2.8 million euros ($4.1 million) to build.

But this investment is only a fraction of what the city of Dusseldorf is coughing up for Eurovision.

"For the contest as such, 7.8 million euros have been allocated within Dusseldorf's budget," Andre Boschem, the city's official project leader for the Eurovision Song Contest, told Deutsche Welle.

Inspiration from Oslo

After Dusseldorf was chosen as the host city for this year's Eurovision, its officials traveled to Oslo, which had hosted the 2010 contest, to learn from its experience.

"There, the numbers of tourists increased by tens of thousands due to the event," Boschem pointed out.

In addition to that, the song contest attracts plenty of publicity in local and international media. If Oslo had covered the costs of each newspaper article and report relating to the event, it would have had to spend some 200 million euros. And although this is just an estimate, Boschem is certain that Dusseldorf will make every effort to draw attention to itself as a thriving economic center and tourist destination.

Coordinating the participation of 43 nations in the competition is not an easy task. The arrival and accommodation of over a thousand people from various delegations needs to be organized, as well as turning the track-and-field hall into a press center for the 2,500 journalists expected to arrive from all parts of the world.

Both of the semi-finals, a public dress rehearsal and the finale on May 14 will take place in front of live audiences of around 36,000 people.

Flurry of business

Tobias Warnecke, a spokesman for the German Hotel Association, told Deutsche Welle the influx of fans was boosting business at the city's hotels.

"All of the hotels in Dusseldorf are fully booked already or very close to it," he said. "It's a real plus for the hotel industry and it has increased the occupancy rate at Dusseldorf's hotels for the whole month."

Warnecke said high demand for accommodation had driven prices up but added that the poular show would not have any lasting impact on prices or occupancy rates. He said he expected these to return to normal almost overnight and added that the effects of hosting the Eurovision Song Contest would be limited compared with other international events like the World Cup.

"In my opinion, it's comparable to a trade fair - it will be noticed, but we don't expect it to have a huge impact," he said.

Dusseldorf's hotel industry is well-placed to cater for an event like Eurovision given that the city's exhibition center hosts more than 40 trade fairs and events every year. The international "boot" boat show, the cpd fashion trade fair and MEDICA, the world's biggest medical technology fair, all draw a big crowd.

"Dusseldorf has a wide range of hotels from five-star to three-star and two-star hotels, so there's enough range and enough capacity - there won't be any bottlenecks," Warnecke said.

World-class event

For the television broadcasters, the scope of the event is somewhat larger.

"After the Olympic Games and the soccer world cup, the Eurovision Song Contest is definitely the third-biggest TV event around the world," said Thomas Schreiber, entertainment manager for German public broadcaster ARD. "We broadcast in over 50 countries, as far as Australia, New Zealand and the US."

According to Schreiber, as many as 125 million viewers will tune it worldwide.

All in all, this year's broadcast costs are expected to total between 23 and 25 million euros - not an extravagant sum, considering that the city of Dusseldorf is contributing, too. And, with annual revenue of around eight billion euros, ARD and ZDF are the most affluent public broadcasters in the world.

Their main goal, however, is not to do business, but to put on a perfect show. As Schreiber put it, "The Eurovision Song Contest is not the kind of event that you organize if you want to earn money."

Author: Klaus Ulrich / ew / mm

Editor: Kate Bowen