Opinions This is a debate post. The post expresses the writer’s views.
One of the most inconsistent posts I have ever read in HA was written by Rainer Prang (INP), was online on 8.5. this year and talked about him complaining that there had been far too few tourists here.
With all due respect, we had Allsang until 2022 and Prang was perhaps the second most eager in Halden to get rid of this investment in tourism that really put Halden on the map. Because there are still more people who ask Rannestad where the Allsang scene was than where Karl XII fell.
Still, Prang finds himself writing that tourism has been treated like a stepmother for a number of years.
Here is a small summary of what Halden actually got for 2-3 million annually, seen with 2022 figures:
36,000 audiences spread over 7 recordings gave an average of 5,142 each night, of which 30,000 were visitors, which meant that they also felt it in our neighboring towns Sarpsborg and Strømstad, because everything in Halden was full. And so on until the middle of the week, 7 weeks in a row.
TV programs from Halden were broadcast 16 times in prime time with an average of 324,000 viewers, the YouTube channel had 124,000 subscribers, YouTube clips from Halden have been viewed over 84 million times and Allsang’s fb page had 500,000 followers.
If Halden had bought this marketing package, it would have cost NOK 78 million!
Teams and associations that did voluntary work received approx. 1 million of the 3 million Halden paid and in addition goods and services were bought and rented, everything from flowers to faucets, for a total of NOK 5 million. Britt Brattli in Tista Senter says that they had very good turnover in June-August and Vegar Skogli at Halden Taxi says that they had 4-5 extra maxitaxis in traffic on Wednesdays, to name a few local statements.
In addition, we know that the approx. The 25 workplaces at Fredriksten Hotell would not be there without Allsang, something owner Knut Johansen has been very clear about. Just the tax from these new workplaces probably covered Halden’s entire net cost alone.
We got all this for 3 million gross. I dare say that no Norwegian municipality has ever received more in return for a tourist investment than what Halden received in return for Allsang. It is simply not possible to achieve! In addition to this, we had perhaps Norway’s best event agency to both run Allsang and market our city.
I think Halden should bid more for TV2 to continue, because the city made money from the event every year. We don’t know if it would have helped the decision to shut down, but it would have been worth a try. Because what we paid was really “cheap”.
Because what can one expect to get out of a tourist investment of a mere 2-3 million, an amount that today is barely enough to get a semi-final in the Grand Prix…!?
Several of those who were against the event were very afraid that Eventyrlie and TV2 would make money from this. But we should have wanted them to make a lot of money from it, because then it might have continued and could have been further developed to bring even more tourists to Halden.
It is very special that Prang, who was the second most eager in Halden to get rid of the 30,000 visitors we had every summer after all, now complains that there have been few tourists in Halden.
He himself has worked for it.
also read
