[ad_1]
The forecasts of 20,000 to 30,000 overseas tourists for the Eurovision Song Contest last week in Tel Aviv never materialized. Tourism correspondent "Globes", Michal Raz-Chaimovich, reported that an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 people only came to Israel, including the delegations of the 41 participating countries and the journalists who accompanied them. Madonna alone has brought in a vast entourage of 65 dancers and members of the choir.
A survey conducted by "Yediot Ahronot" revealed that the occupancy rate of hotels in Tel Aviv was 90% this weekend, against only 77% at Airbnb and in other apartments . 19659002] An unsuccessful bidding call was organized to install thousands of people in the city, while Ministry of Tourism officials had recommended that thousands of "redundant" people could stay in Herzliya, Netanya and even in Jerusalem, all close to Tel. Aviv.
RELATED ARTICLES
Inevitably, we have not been able to convince more tourists to come. The high ticket prices for the event itself and the exorbitant prices of the accommodations were mentioned, even though they fell to more realistic levels when it became apparent that there were fewer customers than expected. These prices would certainly have deterred non-Eurovision tourists from considering coming to Israel for work or leisure in mid-May.
But in the end, the failure was to understand that, even though the Eurovision Song Contest is a very popular glitzy distraction, it is essentially an armchair of TV shows, without an army of fans, and it is unlikely that even many of the world's 200 million viewers would have had the stamina to watch the final 3 hours and 40 minutes of their finals, but they have probably paused in the broadcast
Eurovision fans do not look like European football fans who travel the continent by the thousands to attend matches, let alone when it happens up in Israel. Even in football, the best European teams, Arsenal and Chelsea, are struggling to sell their 12,000 tickets (6,000 per team) to the final of the Europa League final in Baku, Azerbaijan, later this month. ci, because of the distance and fees.
The Eurovision Song Contest, the biggest musical event in the world, is without a doubt a dazzling spectacle if the participants are unknown aspirants and the cultural quality of the music is looked upon with disdain by the industry pop music itself. Madonna may be an international mega-star, but her appearance was guaranteed only at the last minute and she only sang two songs anyway. Basically, it's the smaller nations like Israel, Ireland, and Sweden that are taking the competition more seriously. The UK in particular is proud to be last.
All this does not mean that Tel Aviv must be disappointed. The semi-finals and the spectacular grand finale were flawlessly organized and the city garnered huge publicity from millions of viewers and thousands of news articles. The presence of Madonna, who performs her first show for four years, which, although criticized by many critics, only means that the media coverage extends to North America.
So even though tens of thousands of tourists did not come to the Eurovision Song Contest, the media coverage generated only reinforced the image of Tel Aviv and would likely secure the dividend of hundreds of thousands of tourists additional, attracted by the images seen from their television armchairs.
Published by Globes, Economic News in Israel – en.globes.co.il – 19 May 2019
© Copyright Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2019
[ad_2]
Source link
