ASEM summit to bring millions of euros to Helsinki

Total impact of conferences of summer of 2006 to be in tens of millions

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By Erkki Kylmänen
     
      The Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in the autumn of next year will be worth several lottery jackpots for Helsinki businesses.
      About 4,500 people, including organisers, are expected to take part in the meeting, leaving between 7 and 8 million euros in the Helsinki region in just a couple of days.
      Leena Sipilä, a City of Helsinki official responsible for promoting congresses in the Finnish capital, says that the full monetary impact of ASEM will probably be more than the EUR 1,625 per guest that is the usual estimate given.
     
ASEM will be held at the Helsinki Fair Centre on September 14th and 15th 2006.
      "ASEM will be the largest meeting at the head-of-state level ever to be held in Finland", says Anja Viljo, head of the secretariat of the Finnish EU Presidency.
      The meeting will bring together leaders from 38 countries, as well as European Commission President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso. Represented will be all EU member states as well as 13 Asian countries.
      The Helsinki Fair Centre was chosen as the venue both because of its large size, and because transport and security arrangements are easiest to deal with there.
      The Ministry of the Interior and the police will be responsible for the planning and implementation of security arrangements.
      "The programme framework has been in the planning stage from the summer, but it has not yet been possible to set venues for dinners, for instance", says Anja Viljo.
     
The last time that ASEM was held in Europe was in 2002, when Denmark held the EU Presidency.
      "In Copenhagen, lodging and meeting venues were filled to capacity", Viljo says.
      The economic impact of the Helsinki meeting will extend to the whole Greater Helsinki region.
      Helsinki’s hotels have approximately 7,500 rooms, and some of them need to be available to ordinary tourists, business travellers, and others who are on the move. Therefore, hotels in Vantaa and Espoo will also be housing visitors.
      Adding to the business in the hotels is that ASEM is not the only major conference event in Helsinki next summer.
      In June the European Society of Cardiology will be holding its conference on heart failure, which is expected to bring 2,000 guests to Helsinki. In July, the European Congress on Epilepsy is expected to bring about 3,500 visitors to the city, and in August, more than 1,000 experts on economic history are expected.
      The combined economic boost to the Helsinki region is expected to reach tens of millions of euros, once the conference season and EU Presidency get in gear.
      "It will be a great year", predicts Minna Mäkelä of Helsinki’s Hilton Hotels.
      Already last year, the Finland Convention Bureau calculated that the impact of international conferences in all of Finland was about EUR 239 million. Nearly a third of the flow of money ended up in Helsinki.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 24.9.2004

More on this subject:
 Helsinki hotels expect high occupancy next summer
 BACKGROUND: ASEM marks tenth anniversary

Previously in HS International Edition:
  Report: ASEM summit might not be held in Tampere (29.4.2005)
  Tampere to host EU-Mediterranean meeting (25.8.2005)

ERKKI KYLMÄNEN / Helsingin Sanomat
erkki.kylmanen@hs.fi