Copenhagen, Denmark.
A new economic impact analysis from VisitDenmark reveals that the start of the Giro d’Italia in Denmark – staged last May – was a great success, further enhancing Denmark’s event experience and expanding its international marketing.
While the analysis rated good atmosphere, public festivities and pride among the top markers associated with the event, an important finding was the added financial injection within the tourism industry in the regions of Herning and Horsens. The Giro’s economic turnover generated approximately 14.5 million Euro, of which almost 5.4 million Euro came from international tourists.
Involvement and international branding
Commenting on the event the CEO of Sport Event Denmark, Lars Lundov stated, “With the staging of the Start of Giro d’Italia 2012 we once again showed the world that Denmark can host incredible sports events that can be enjoyed by spectators worldwide”.
Project manager – Maria Haugaard Christensen, of VisitDenmark added, “The results of the new analysis, along with our marketing results, show an extremely high level of satisfaction from the event. This underlines the fact that sports events are a perfect platform for marketing Denmark internationally.”
The economic impact analysis concluded, among other things, the following:
Spectator Experience
– Up to 500,000 spectators attended the start of the Giro d’Italia 2012.
– Many of the spectators regarded the event both as a festival and a cycling race. Approximately eight out of ten spectators felt involved in and a part of this festival. This applied equally to Danish and foreign spectators.
Tourism Revenue
– Spectators for the start of the Giro d’Italia generated approximately 43,000 overnight stays, of which close to 18,000 were international spectators.
– Estimated tourism revenues: approximately DKK 108 million (14.5 million Euro) was generated in the host municipalities of which about DKK 40 million (5.4 million Euro) came from international tourists which represents 36.4 per cent of the total revenue.
Marketing
– The marketing campaign was displayed 65.8 million times across different media, creating awareness of the Danish brand across a total of 1.6 million people who saw, heard, read or participated in the campaign.
– VisitDenmark further estimates that the campaigns have created a preference for a (bike) holiday in Denmark among 218,500 people.
