The Lisbon City Council will play a key role in the funding of the forthcoming 2018 Eurovision Song Contest. Local Portuguese media is reporting that the Camara de Lisboa plans to invest 5 million Euros from the tourist tax in Eurovision.

In 2018, part of the Lisbon tourist tax revenue will be used to fund the Eurovision Song Contest, which takes place in Parque das Nações in May. The Lisbon City Council intends to invest about five million Euros in the event.

This is a significant amount in the investment pie that the municipality plans to fund through the Tourism Development Fund, which is 16.3 million Euros for the coming year. This means that 30% of that amount will be channeled to Eurovision.

Mr. João Paulo Saraiva (Lisbon’s finance minister) made a comment after presenting the 2018 general budget during a press conference at Lisbon’s City Hall:

It’s going to be an event with huge expectations of returns. The contest will showcase both Portugal and Lisbon in a  very expressive way to the whole world.

The Lisbon City Council expects to raise 14.5 million Euros through the tourist tax in 2018, which is a conservative perspective, taking into account that up to this October, 13.9 million euros were collected and the municipality expects to close the year with an equal amount to what is budgeted for the next.

Tourist Tax Revenues to fund the contest

Although the budget for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 has not yet been announced, it is already certain that part of the funding will be financed from Lisbon tourist tax revenues. Hereby an agreement was signed last August during the press conference between RTP, the Lisbon City Council and ATL – Associação Turismo de Lisboa.

The estimated cost of hosting the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest is something that has not yet been disclosed, but a 25 million Euros return is expected only in tourism revenues. Hence the Lisbon City Council and Lisbon Tourism will financially support the organization of the event.

The money will come from the Tourism Development Fund created with the tourist tax funds applied on overnight stays in the city.

Who will finance Eurovision 2018?

The City of Lisbon and Lisbon Tourism will play a key role in organising the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest and will cover a great amount of the costs. Both entities will be responsible in organising the side events, city dressing, city events, etc, whilst the Tourism of Portugal will also contribute to the event.

Bear in mind that Portugal will be hosting the Eurovision Song Contest for the very first time and it will be an excellent window to the world both for the city and country to showcase themselves in the best possible way.

Other costs will be covered by sponsors, ticket sales, etc. RTP will be responsible to cover the costs of organising the 3 television shows. The Portuguese broadcaster will be concentrating all its forces in the coming months on organizing the 3 television shows.

The 2018 Eurovision Song Contest is scheduled to be held on 8, 10 and 12 May 2018 in at the Altice Arena in Lisbon, Portugal.