European Football Championship, for Germany a billion euro from foreign tourists -

The European Football Championship 2024 will earn Germany a billion euros thanks to foreign tourists travelling to the country to watch the 51 matches in 10 different cities. A figure that corresponds to about 0.1% of GDP in the second quarter of the year with the German hospitality and food retail sectors benefiting the most. The prediction of the effects on tourism of one of the two major sporting events of the European summer (the other being the Paris Olympics scheduled from 26 July to 11 August) is from the Ifo Institut, the country's leading economic research centre founded in 1949.

"However," warns Gerome Wolf, a researcher at the Munich-based institute, "the effect is only short-lived: exports of services due to the return of tourists will probably decrease again after the end of the European Championship in the third quarter and remain unchanged.

According to calculations made by the institute based on the numbers of the Fifa World Cup hosted by Germany in 2006, over 600,000 more foreign tourists and 1.5 million additional overnight stays are expected during the championship.

The German Ministry of Economic Affairs also expects a temporary recovery thanks to Euro 2024 in the consumer-oriented sectors after the very modest retail sales at the beginning of the year. But not to the same extent as during the 2006 World Cup.

Experts agree that the overall effect of Euro 2024 on Europe's largest economy will also depend on the results of the German team in the tournament.