The Eurovision Song Contest 2023 delivered a £54 million
economic boost to the Liverpool City Region, the council has revealed.
A series of five in-depth, independent evaluations commissioned
by the city council looked at the economic and social impact of staging the
event on behalf of Ukraine, as well as the influence on cultural relations; the
impact on wellbeing in the city and the wider city region; the visitor
experience and the effectiveness of the strategic collaboration between
delivery agencies. The interim findings were discussed at a special one-day Eurovision event at ACC Liverpool on Thursday 26 October.
Key data highlights include:
The big numbers
• Eurovision
boosted the Liverpool City Region economy by £54.8million (net) with
restaurants, accommodation providers, shops, bars and transport networks all
benefitting.
• In total
473,000 people attended Eurovision events in the city, with 306,000 additional
visitors heading to Liverpool to be part of the celebrations.
• In May,
175,000 city centre hotel rooms were sold
- the best month on record since 2018. (STEAM data)
Culture counts
• The
education and community programmes, EuroStreet and EuroLearn, engaged with 367
organisations and directly with 50,000 people, young and old. The overall
programme is estimated to have reached 2 million people.
• EuroFestival
– the Culture Liverpool curated two-week culture festival – presented 24 brand
new commissions, 19 of which were in collaboration with Ukrainian artists. A
huge 328,346 people engaged with this programme – 557 artists, 1,750 participants
involved in a commission and an audience number of 326,039.
• The
official Eurovision Village, located at the Pier Head attracted 250,000
visitors across the ten days it was open, with the ticketed final selling out
within hours.
Visitor views
• Visitors
to Liverpool reported an overwhelmingly positive experience. In a survey, 89
per cent of those questioned, felt it was a safe event and 88 per cent praised
its inclusivity. A whopping 96 per cent of those surveyed would recommend
Liverpool as a destination to visit and 42 per cent of overseas visitors said
the city’s staging of the event had a positive impact on how they viewed the
UK.
• The
official Eurovision Fan Club – the OGAEs – carried out a survey and found that
99 per cent of their members felt welcomed in the city and 98 per cent loved
the undeniable festival atmosphere.
Read all about it
• Between
the period of October 2022, when Liverpool was announced as host city, until
end of May 2023, more than 280,000 pieces of global news coverage were
generated.
• The three
live BBC shows were watched by 162 million people.
Leader of Liverpool City Council, Councillor Liam Robinson,
said: “From the outset, we put plans in place to evaluate everything we
programmed in order to have a thorough understanding of the impact of major
events.
“The visitor and economic figures speak for themselves –
jobs were created, local businesses were on the receiving end of a much-needed
boost and hundreds of thousands of people came to the city, had a great time
and are more than likely to return again.
“These comprehensive reports give us the opportunity to
reflect on what was achieved over an incredibly short period of time, but more
importantly we can look at lessons learnt for the next time we host a major
event.
“Knowing the financials and the visitor numbers is always a great
indicator of success, but with Eurovision we wanted to do more. As the first
host city ever to introduce a school and community programme dedicated to
Eurovision, we needed to drill into what that really meant for people - did it
make a positive difference to their lives and as a result to our city? Never
before has any other location commissioned such a detailed analysis, and it
goes without saying that our methodology can be adopted by locations across the
world which is a real badge of honour for Liverpool.
“This collective research proves that events like Eurovision
can transcend boundaries, leaving a legacy of inspiration and goodwill. It was
a milestone moment in our city’s history, and now we’re more than ready for the
next one.”
Liverpool’s director of culture, Claire McColgan CBE, said: “We
have spent years working towards what we all experienced in May – we cut our
teeth during our European Capital of Culture year and from that point we have
grown exponentially in confidence and ability as year-on-year we continue to
deliver events that rival any other on the world stage.
“The pandemic was a real line in the sand for us, and
undoubtedly Liverpool’s role in leading the charge on the reopening of venues
nationwide made us stand out from the crowd – we are recognised as a city that
can deliver unforgettable moments, safely, quickly and with a scouse panache
that simply can’t be replicated anywhere else.
“It has been a real pleasure to digest these impact reports
and relive the experience once again and reassure myself it wasn’t just a crazy
dream! They underline the fact Liverpool has the skill, agency-wide teamwork
and the creativity to deliver time and time again.”
Eurovision minister Stuart Andrew said: "It is fantastic to see the impact that hosting the
Eurovision Song Contest has had on Liverpool. The city put on a fantastic
display of culture and creativity, showing solidarity with our friends in
Ukraine and highlighting what unites us all.
"This research demonstrates the positive impact of
hosting major events and I hope that we can continue to build on this
success."
