Saxony House in Vancouver has accomplished its mission

TMGS welcomed 75 percent more guests than expected

Dresden, March 9th 2010 – after the end of the XXI Olympic Winter Games 2010 in Vancouver Saxony in Germany is largely known: after 17 Olympic days with 34.000 guests, mainly from Canada, Saxony House in Vancouver looks back on an exceedingly successful presence. "Germany Saxony House", as the Canadian hosts used to call the Saxon domicile in the Vancouver Rowing Club, advanced to one of the most popular addresses for Olympic athletes from Saxony and all of Germany, for numerous prominent people from the sectors of politics, economy, culture and media as well as for Olympia fans from all over the world. With that, the Winter Games of Vancouver represent yet another success for the Tourismus Marketing Gesellschaft Sachsen (TMGS) in their endeavor to promote Saxony abroad. It is true that, due to the limited capacity of the accommodation, the number of visitors was inevitably smaller than in Turin but it exceeded the former calculation of 20.000 visitors by 75 percent. The sale of roughly 22.000 liters of beer and 15.000 fried sausages from the Ore Mountains was even markedly higher than four years ago.

"The concept to make the land of Saxony accessible to the Canadians with typical culture, music, specialties and hospitality has been successful. With our program we have provided exactly what the Olympic guests, and especially the Canadians, have been searching for: a meeting place to celebrate Olympic successes, with interesting people and atmosphere“, said TMGS managing director Hans-Jürgen Goller during a résumé press conference in Dresden on Tuesday. "We have made good progress in our attempt to promote Saxony in North America“, he estimated. To achieve sustainability, this market should now be reworked. This would require a corresponding budget, though.

The Free State, the TMGS, the sponsors and the team of 25 people from Saxony have contributed (with all their energy) to the successful outcome of the task given by the Saxon government to present Saxony as innovative business location, successful land of sports and attractive holiday destination. "It was a good decision and at the same time a task worth the while to fly the flag with our own house in Vancouver and promote Saxony", said Prime Minister Stanislaw Tillich. The TMGS has found an excellent shelter for Saxony House that quickly became one of the most popular meeting points for the locals and all participants and visitors of the Olympic Games, continued Tillich.

The "Saxon representation" in Vancouver was a perfect platform for official appointments. One of these was the signing of a contract for the worldwide so far unique cooperation for the exchange of cultural goods between the State Art Collections Dresden and the U'mista Cultural Centre in Alert Bay on February 19. In addition, a night of investors of the Saxony Economic Development Corporation with Canadian enterprises and nights of sponsors took place.

Furthermore, Saxony House experienced a great response from the media and was a central contact point for national and international, especially Canadian, journalists. The TMGS could so far ascertain nearly 200 publications in American, Canadian and worldwide reporting media like CNN, USA Today, Telegraph, The Vancouver Sun, Le Nouvel Observateur with a potential accessibility of 200 million people.
The media monitoring in Germany resulted in 945 reports in 149 daily newspapers, magazines, news agencies, television stations like ARD, ZDF, n-tv and MDR as well as radio stations with a media value of more than 1.5 million Euros. Moreover, Saxony House was the subject of different blogs, at Twitter and YouTube. 600 friends registered on Facebook alone.

From February 12 to 28, the guests of Saxony House experienced a brilliant program without entrance charge – from a corporate video on Saxony's cultural and scenic particularities developed specially for the Canadian and international audience, live music with "De Erbschleicher" from the Ore Mountains and hot DJ sounds to Saxon specialties like fried sausage, crusted roast, game dishes and Wernesgrüner beer. The project, which had already been adopted two years ago by a decision of the cabinet, was financed by a basic allowance from the Free State of Saxony, by a six-figure sum of sponsorship money and by revenues generated on the spot.

Contact: Tourismus Marketing Gesellschaft Sachsen, Press and PR, Ines Nebelung, Bautzner Straße 45 – 47, 01099 Dresden, Tel.: +49 (0)351-4917025, presse.tmgs@sachsen-tour.de, www.sachsen-tourismus.de, www.sachsen-in-vancouver-2010.com

Sponsors of Saxony House:

Cellagon ®

Ostsächsische Sparkasse Dresden und
Ostdeutscher Sparkassenverband

Wirtschaftsförderung Sachsen GmbH

Wernesgrüner

Wirtschaftsförderung Erzgebirge

Richter Fleischwaren Oederan