Report says Guggenheim museum could bring millions in tax revenues

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The Guggenheim Museum in the Spanish city of Bilbao, which was set up in 1997, has become a tremendous hit among tourists, which has had a significant positive impact on that city’s economy.
      Expectations in Helsinki are also high that if a Guggenheim museum is built here, it will bring in large numbers of tourists, who would leave money in the city.
     
The report by the Guggenheim Foundation, which was made public on Tuesday states that if it is established, the Guggenheim Museum would have significant economic benefits for the Helsinki region as well as Finland as a whole.
      It is hard to make precise estimates, but optimistic figures are put forward in the report, based on the projected number of visitors.
      The numbers are based on a consumer and travel study by The Boston Consulting Group, which interviewed with 2,500 people living in the Helsinki region. Also interviewed were 600 foreigners in places such as Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, the Allegro train operating between Helsinki and St. Petersburg, and ferry and cruise line terminals.
     
Based on the interviews, the museum was expected to attract an average of 530,000 visitors each year, which is more than twice the number that visit the Ateneum, and at the same level as the most popular museum in the Nordic Countries – Stockholm’s Moderna Museet, and the Louisiana museum outside Copenhagen.
      The figure is based on the assumption that a Guggenheim museum would bring in significantly more foreign visitors than Helsinki’s existing museums would – at least 200,000 a year.
     
If the goal of 530,000 visitors were to materialise, the report concludes that the increases in tax revenue would be about EUR 4.5 million a year. Of that amount, the City of Helsinki would get 0.75 million, while the other municipalities of the Uusimaa region would get 0.85 million. Other municipalities would benefit to the tune of EUR 200,000, while the state would get EUR 2.7 million in additional tax revenue.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Working group favours construction of Guggenheim museum in Helsinki (11.1.2012)
  Guggenheim Foundation aims towards building museum on controversial site in Katajanokka (23.8.2011)
  Guggenheim chooses Helsinki over Taipei, Rio, and Guadalajara (19.1.2011)

Links:
  The Guggenheim Foundation
  Guggenheim New York website: City of Helsinki Receives Study For Potential Guggenheim Museum

Helsingin Sanomat