Who could forget the incredible sights and atmosphere across Liverpool in May when our wonderful, vibrant, beautiful city was host to the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) on behalf of Ukraine?
The event reached 162 million people over the three live shows with the UK credited with delivering the largest ESC audience on record – an average of 9.9 million viewers watched the Grand Final on BBC One. The Director General of the BBC, Tim Davie commented: “This was a Eurovision Song Contest like no other and we couldn’t have been more proud to showcase Ukraine and Liverpool to the rest of the world.”
While the full economic and social impact of hosting the event in Liverpool is still being evaluated, early data and figures from Merseyside Police suggest that an additional 500,000 visitors came to the city in the two weeks running up to the Contest. This is in line with pre-event predictions which also suggested the event would net up to £30 million in profit which will be reinvested into regeneration projects around the city.
With the UK government having invested £10 million to help the city facilitate the event, there is also the long-term boost to tourism which itself is expected to raise up to £260 million by 2026, according to the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. Taking all this into account, it is likely that our city will exceed the projected 6% economic growth which was forecasted in 2022 – great news for everyone, but especially business owners and investors in the North West.
None of this though would have been possible without the teams at Liverpool City Council (LCC), led by its Head of Communications, Camilla Mankabady and Culture Liverpool led by Claire McColgan CBE.
FPC invited Camilla, Claire and representatives from their teams and from Marketing Liverpool (including Alicia Smith, Susan Finnegan, Angie Redhead, Jen Falding, Susan Gibson, Lucy Cashman, and Sarah Latcham) to join them at the MWOTY awards as VIP guest, and were surprised to find themselves being called up to the stage by Moira O’Shaughnessy, Managing Partner at FPC, for special recognition and to publicly acknowledge the incredible feat they performed enabling this event to happen in Liverpool, and the part they played in improving the city’s economic outlook.
As Camilla herself commented: “Public service comes in all shapes and sizes, but all projects have hope, compassion and positivity at their core.”
Our thanks again to the women of Merseyside behind the city’s fantastic Eurovision event!
