[Source: Reuters]

Next year’s Eurovision Song Contest will be held in the Swiss city of Basel, the event’s organiser said.

Setting it up for an economic boost from the hundreds of thousands of fans expected to flock to its restaurants, hotels and bars.

The final, which was watched by 163 million viewers around the world this year, will take place on May 17 in Basel’s St Jakobshalle arena, a multi-purpose sport and music venue that can accommodate 12,000 fans.

Basel beat competition from Geneva to host the May 2025 event, which Switzerland will host after singer Nemo won this year’s competition in Malmo, Sweden.

The two Swiss cities were the final candidates chosen according to criteria that included transport connections, hotel capacity and security.

Other factors included available venues, sustainability and how the city disposes of waste, as well as experience with large scale events, said Swiss broadcaster SRG which is organising next year’s show.

“Congratulations to Basel,” said Reto Peritz and Moritz Stadler, the co-executive producers of the Eurovision Song Contest, in a statement.

“We look forward to working with you to make the ESC an unforgettable experience for everyone.”

In addition to Geneva, earlier unsuccessful applications to host the event came from Zurich and jointly from Bern and Nemo’s hometown Biel.

The Basel government said it would submit a funding proposal to the city’s parliament for 34.9 million Swiss francs ($41.2 million) to pay for the event.

While the costs of hosting are substantial, when the contest was held in Liverpool in 2023 the local economy was boosted by nearly 55 million pounds ($72.5 million), with restaurants, accommodation providers, shops, bars and transport networks all benefiting, according to Liverpool City Region.

In total, 473,000 people attended Eurovision events in the city, with another 306,000 visiting to take part in the celebrations.

Christoph Bosshardt, head of external relations and location marketing for Basel, said the city had looked to Liverpool’s experience when calculating the potential economic benefits.

“We expect around 60 million Swiss francs in revenue from all the guest and all the productions in our region,” he told reporters.

The city also highlighted the potential image gains from hosting Eurovision, which was last held in Switzerland in 1989 after Celine Dion won the year before.

“The ESC 2025 offers Basel the chance to reach an audience of millions,” the governing council of Basel said.

“Basel will be able to present itself to a global audience as a European, cosmopolitan city of culture and as an attractive and modern venue.”