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Berlin wins praise for its hosting of the World Championships in Athletics

WorldAdmin — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:05:29 +0000

Berlin wins praise for its hosting of the World Championships in Athletics

via Berlin wins praise for its hosting of the World Championships in Athletics | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 25.08.2009.

The IAAF World Championships in Athletics held for the first time in Berlin drew to a close at the weekend. For the German capital, it was more than just a sporting event.

After Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt broke his second world record there was no looking back. Berlin had captured the world’s attention.

At the closing ceremonies, participants thanked their hosts

The 12th International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships got off to a slow start with much being made of the high price of the tickets nd the rows of empty seats at many of the events in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium.

By the time the final weekend of the competition arrived, 400,000 people had gone through the turnstiles at the stadium. More than a million spectators turned out on the streets of Berlin to watch the marathon.

The 42,195-kilometer race, which wound its way through the historical city center, was also broadcast live in 190 countries, offering Berlin an enormous promotional opportunity.

An opportunity money can’t buy

“If you watched the pictures going around the world of the runners going through the Brandeburg Gate, down Unter den Linden, past the State Opera House, you knew Berlin was establishing a place in the mental map of the viewers,” said Berlin’s chief of tourism, Burkhard Kieker.

On Sunday, Klaus Wowereit, the city’s mayor, presented Bolt with a three-ton piece of the Berlin wall before knocking back claims that hosting the event had cost the city well in excess of the 20 million euros ($29 million).

“This is the sort of one-off promotion that money can’t buy,” Wowereit said.

Wowereit told a German broadcaster Berlin’s investment bank had calculated an increase of 120 million euros ($ 172 million) in GDP for Berlin over the next two years as a direct result of the championships.

Berlin already has 140 million visitors a year and is according to Kieker, the only city worldwide that can boast an increase in visitors of 2.6 percent in the first six months of 2009.

Berlin’s feel-good championships

Jamaican wonder-runner wins over Berlin hearts
The atmosphere Berlin provided at the championships has added another dimension to the city’s position as Europe’s most popular tourist destination after London and Paris.

In the past Berliners have had a reputation for being poor providers of customer service and of being blunt to the point of rude. They have, according to Kieker, emerged from the world championships as fair-minded spectators and welcoming hosts.

“I think the athletics meet has helped remind people around the world that Berlin is a worth a visit because it’s a very relaxed, laid back, friendly city with a lot to do and to see even if there is no sports. The outspokenness of Berliners is legendary but on the other hand you can see that behind this gruff exterior there is a lot of heart,” Kieker said.

Yes Berlin can

What Berlin has proven is that it has the means to manage a world event while benefiting from an unusually prominent year in the spotlight.

A federal election will attract the world’s news-gathering media in September - and the city is also celebrating 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Despite the cost of hosting the championships Wowereit said it was essential for world cities to compete for international events as the crowds and investments this draws in the long term outweighs relatively small budget deficits.

Wowereit and Kieker have so far remained tight-lipped about whether Berlin will be bidding for the 2020 summer Olympics. The president of the German Athletics Association (DLV), Clemens Prokop was less reticent.

It is clear, he said, that Berlin has shown itself more than suitable for future big events including the Olympics.

Author: Tanya Wood
Editor: Trinity Hartman

Helsinki

WorldAdmin — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:59:02 +0000

Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the southern part of Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, by the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is 579,016 (30 June 2009), making it the most populous municipality in Finland by a wide margin. The foreign-born population stands at around 10%.

Helsinki, along with the neighbouring cities of Vantaa (Vanda), Espoo (Esbo), and Kauniainen (Grankulla), constitutes what is known as the capital region, with over 1,000,000 inhabitants. The Greater Helsinki area contains 12 municipalities and has a population of over 1,300,000. The Greater Helsinki accounts for a quarter of the population of Finland, 29% of jobs, and a third of the GDP.

Helsinki is Finland’s capital for business, education, research, culture, and government. Greater Helsinki has eight universities and six technology parks. Some 70% of foreign companies operating in Finland have settled in the Helsinki region. The immigration of rural residents has made it one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in Europe.

Finland’s main international airline hub, Helsinki-Vantaa Airport is 20 kilometres (12 mi) from the city center, with direct flights around the world. The busy Helsinki–Tallinn route takes 1.5 hours by hydrofoil, 4 hours by ferry, and 18 minutes by helicopter. Two other big cities in Finland, Tampere and Turku, can be reached in 1.5–2 hours by train and 1.5–2.5 hours by car.

In early 2009, Helsinki has started contemplating a possible merger with Vantaa. On 30 March 2009, the city council of Vantaa agreed to do a review of Helsinki’s proposal of a possible merger. The city council emphasises that the review is not about a possible discontinuation of the city of Vantaa.

From Wikipedia

Mexico City

WorldAdmin — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:29:34 +0000

Mexico City is the capital city of Mexico It is the economic, industrial, and cultural center in the country, and the most populous city, with about 8,836,045 inhabitants in 2008. Greater Mexico City (Zona Metropolitana del Valle de México) incorporates 59 adjacent municipalities of Mexico State and 29 municipalities of the state of Hidalgo, according to the most recent definition agreed upon by the federal and state governments. Greater Mexico City has a population exceeding 19 million people, making it the second largest metropolitan area in the Americas and the third largest agglomeration in the world. In 2005, it ranked the eighth in terms of GDP (PPP) among urban agglomerations in the world. Mexico City is a major global city in Latin America and ranked 25th among global cities by Foreign Policy’s 2008 Global Cities Index.

According to a study conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Greater Mexico City had a GDP of $315 billion in 2005 at purchasing power parity, an urban agglomeration with the eighth highest GDP in the world after the greater areas of Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Paris, London and Osaka/Kobe, and the highest in Latin America. In 2020, it is expected to rank seventh with a $608 billion GDP, displacing Osaka/Kobe.

As of 2008, the city had a GDP of about $221 billion, with an income per capita of $25,258, well above the national average and on par with high income economies such as South Korea or the Czech Republic.

Mexico City is located in the Valley of Mexico, also called the Valley of Anáhuac, a large valley in the high plateaus at the center of Mexico, at an altitude of 2,240 meters (7,349 ft). The city was originally built as Tenochtitlan by the Aztecs in 1325 on an island of Lake Texcoco. It was almost completely destroyed in the siege of 1521, and was subsequently redesigned and rebuilt in accordance with the Spanish urban standards. In 1524 the municipality of Mexico City was established, known as México Tenustitlán, and as of 1585 it was officially known as ciudad de México.

From Wikipedia