Gdansk revels in Euro 2012 gains

Spanish fans revel in the Gdansk sunshine: photo - PAP/Adam Warzawa

Speaking to the Polish Press Agency, Anna Zbierska, director of city promotion at the town hall, revealed that the city had spent 3 million zloty (708, 819 euro) on advertising prior to the tournament.

However, referring to research commissioned for the city by the Institute of Media Monitoring (IMM), she said that foreign media coverage to date was worth over thirty times more that sum.

The Baltic city has been hosting matches from Group C sides, taking in Spain, Italy, Croatia and the Republic of Ireland.

Zbierska revealed that the largest amount of media coverage to date had been in Spain.

“A very large amount was also in the German press,” she added, noting that Irish and Croatian media outlets had written about the city to a lesser degree.

Zbierska highlighted that 99 percent of the materials concerning Gdansk in the foreign press were positive.

“The European championships are a great opportunity for promotion,” she concluded.

“What's more, the coverage in the media serves these goals much better than, for example, an advert, because it's always much better received than a traditional advert.” (nh)