The tourist tax - one euro per night - introduced in Lisbon last year will be used to cover the costs of Eurovision song contest 2018, says Lisbon Mayor Fernando Medina. The city already earned 13,5 million euros in 2016 thanks to this fee, and with the rising number of visitors and booming tourism this year the sum is surely going to be even bigger.
The same system is used in many cities and countries under various names like hotel tax etc but this is propably the first time it is used openly to finance some major event.
RTP CEO Gonçalo Reis says they're excited but understand the responsability and complexity, grandeur and the requisities they are facing, but they will make the most of it. It's a huge window and opportunity to Portuguese music industry and RTP to showcase themselves internationally.Yet the contest will be one of the most economical of the recent years, but he won't go into budget details yet.
Meanwhile 27 countries have confirmed their participation in Lisbon 2018:
Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, and there's no need to think Albania, Australia, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Moldova, Netherlands and United Kingdom wouldn't participate.
This blogger remembers Lex Carola, some extra tax on Swedes in 1991-1992 to cover up the costs of the Eurovision 1992, but this times it's the tourists paying.
