A city without a developed tourist industry struggles to prepare for an influx of tourists
With her victory at the last Eurovision Song Contest in May 2004 in Istanbul, Ukrainian pop star Ruslana Lyzhichko obliged her country to host the next contest, consistent with the event’s 50-year tradition.
Nearly eight months later, however, Eurovision fans from Ukraine and other countries are asking: What’s going on with the Eurovision contest in Ukraine, which is slated to take place at the Sports Palace from May 19 to 21?
Judging by the lack of concise information available online about Ukraine’s preparations for the contest – despite the existence of several official-looking Web sites – it’s not surprising that some, such as Belgian Jan Hebbelinck, have been left wondering.
Hebbelinck and his friends call themselves “100 percent Eurosong freaks,” he told the Post via e-mail. In 2004 Hebbelinck, 36, who works for a bank in Antwerp as a graphic artist, traveled to Istanbul for the 2004 Eurovision event and heard the contest live for the first time. The year before, he opted out of going due to the price: tickets to the 2003 contest in Tallinn, Estonia, cost nearly 400 euros, compared to 50 euros in Turkey.
Rush seating
Last year, fans outside Turkey started getting ready for Eurovision 2004 only when the organizers in Istanbul did – in November 2003, barely five months before the big pop showdown.
“People were getting nervous because there was no news at all about the organization until then,” says Hebbelinck.
It took Hebbelinck three months of repeated phone calls before BILLETIX, the company in charge of ticket distribution, could give him even the most basic information, such as whether tickets had been printed yet.
Finally his tickets were delivered by courier. His preparations to fly himself out to Istanbul, meanwhile, were well underway.
Despite that initial trouble, Hebbelinck feels he was well rewarded for his efforts.
“When we arrived at Istanbul International Airport, it was clear that the city was ready for the contest,” he says. “It was decorated everywhere, and everywhere you saw Eurosong fans from different nations getting together in bars and restaurants.”
The same old story
This year, Hebbelinck is facing the same problem he did more than a year ago. So far, there hasn’t been any solid information about tickets for the Ukrainian contest. There’s no word on who’s printing them, how much they’ll cost, or when and where they’ll go on sale. According to the unofficial Web site for Eurovision, www.eurovision.tv, the tickets will go on sale “soon.”
When the Post called Eurovision executive producer Pavlo Hrytsak, he directed the call to a colleague who said that tickets would go on sale online some time in late February, with box office sales to follow a month later. No average price for tickets was given, nor were numbers as to how many would be made available.
Swante Stokselius, managing director of the Eurovision Song Contest, mentioned that the cost of the tickets would be determined by Ukraine’s National Television Company, or UT-1. According to Eurovision rules, the population of the host country must be able to afford the tickets.
Without a confirmed time for ticket sales and prices, and given Ukraine’s complicated and expensive visa regime as well as the difficulty of finding reliable online information about accommodations in Kyiv, Hebbelinck and others may not come here for the contest.
“I know about 10 people who are afraid to book a holiday because they don’t have news about ticket sales,” Hebbelinck says.
Music City, UA
Thanks to the pro-democracy protests in the country last fall, Ukraine is now squarely on the map, says Hebbelinck, who added that he has found special tour agencies that organize trips to Ukraine, Russia and Poland. Of the various tour packages he’s seen, a typical rail package from Western Europe to Kyiv for the duration of the contest will cost about 900 euros.
As far as further preparations go, on Jan. 21, the outgoing Cabinet of Ministers approved an action plan for Eurovision 2005.
The plan puts the State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting in charge of coordinating contest activities and implementation. Also, the Cabinet of Ministers ordered the responsible organizations to sign a contract with the European Broadcasting Union, to ensure accreditation of media and to issue visas to contest participants and visitors, as well as provide them with accommodation, transportation, security and communication.
A record 40 delegations and about 2,000 journalists from across Europe will attend the 2005 event, which is expected to draw a television audience of about 100 million in Europe.
No room at the inn
According to the requirements of Eurovision Song Contest organizers, the host city should have no fewer than 2,000 hotel rooms, and the concert hall should not be located farther than 45 minutes’ travel from any hotel.
The Kyiv City Administration plans to invest Hr 60 million to improve the city’s state-run hotels, while the Cabinet of Ministers intends to allocate Hr 30.8 million from the state budget to finance the contest, Ukrainian News reported last week.
But much work still needs to be done for Eurovision 2005 to go smoothly, says Pavlo Hrytsak, executive producer of Eurovision in Ukraine. In particular, the hotel issue has the potential to become a huge problem for contest visitors.
The total number of hotel rooms in Kyiv stands at roughly 3,000, with the average price for a medium-priced hotel room ringing in at around $100 a night per person for a double room.
Whether rooms will be available at the time of the contest is one thing; whether they will meet European standards, or whether foreign guests will be gouged on prices during the contest period, are other things. Eurovision’s Hrytsak, for one, is not impressed.
“For starters, the service in Kyiv hotels does not meet European standards,” Hrytsak told the Post on Jan. 20. “Their high prices are also a factor that may scare away many tourists.”
Tatyana Shestopalova, a market analyst with the SAM tour company, shares Hrytsak’s opinions.
“Our hotel infrastructure is not ready for this trial,” she said. “We don’t see any special hotel renovations yet, and management at most hotels will not disclose their prices for [the Eurovision contest] period.”
Tour operators agree with many visitors to the capital that Kyiv needs good hotels with moderate prices.
The contest venue itself – Kyiv’s Sports Palace, which is undergoing renovations in preparation – wins praise from Stokselius. It is capable of hosting an audience of 6-7,000. Furthermore, it is located in a picturesque district near major hotels and restaurants, in the city center.
Oleh Lukyanenko, the Sports Palace’s chief engineer in charge of repair works, says “a great number of improvements” are currently underway at the aging arena.
The ventilation and air conditioning systems have to be replaced, and construction is soon to begin on 50 press boxes, each capable of accommodating 10 persons. The sports gymnastics club will be rebuilt into a press center, and new equipment will be installed.
At present, the only noticeable changes include refitted cloakrooms and public toilets.
“We still have lots of work to do before we can host the contest,” Lukyanenko said, “but we will definitely finish it on time. We will coordinate all available resources to get the job done.”
