EUROVISION-2012: READINESS NUMBER ONE

In late May, the capital of Azerbaijan will host numerous participants and guests of the international song contest Eurovision-2012. In anticipation of this major event, a number of preparatory measures have been implemented in Baku since the second half of last year. In parallel with the modernization of recreation areas and transport interchanges leading to the National Flag Square, where the construction of the new Baku Crystal Palace is nearing completion, no less than considerable work is under way to improve the work of recreational and service facilities in the capital and to provide new IT and communication services.

Crystal Palace: ready!

The construction of the new sports-concert complex, the Baku Crystal Palace - the main venue for Eurovision-2012 - is nearing completion. The contractor for the construction of the complex is Germany's Alpine Bau Deutchland AG, a company that has extensive international experience in the construction of facilities of this type. The general contract for the construction of the Crystal Palace was signed in August last year, and the German company promised to complete the work within eight months. The construction of the concert complex was carried out simultaneously at three sites - the foundation, the immediate area of the hall and stage, as well as the facade and roof: such an approach was supposed to ensure that the work is completed as soon as possible. The authors of the project, the German bureau gmp - Architekten von Gerkan, Marg und Partner used not a traditional reinforced concrete frame, but a steel construction consisting of three main parts - the facade membrane, the modular stadium bowl and the inner roof. In the first phase, work was carried out to install the stadium bowl and the inner frame of the roof and then, the assembly of substructures of the stands and heat insulation began. The roofing with air ducts, the heat insulation of the facade and substructures of the suspension facade were installed later. At the last stage, the roof over the stands and facade membrane consisting of 9,500 LEDs are installed. The Baku Crystal Palace will have more than 23,000 seats, while 16,000 more people will be able to watch the performances of Eurovision contestants on huge screens. One component of the project will be a media centre for 1,500 people with modern IT equipment. In early March, Alpine Bau Germany AG started work on the lighting of the facade, while work on the mechanization and electrification of the hall, as well as the installation of heating, ventilation and air conditioning started a little earlier. And in mid-April, Brainpool GMBH will begin installing lighting equipment and building a stage.

In parallel with the construction of the Baku Crystal Palace, road construction in the area connecting the Baku-Alat highway to the National Flag Square is nearing completion. A high-quality eight-lane road that meets modern safety standards has been laid in this area. With a large throughput capacity, this road will be a major junction that will make it possible to ease the traffic towards the southern part of the capital during the contest festivities. At the same time, work is under way to lay new sections of the seaside boulevard. Specifically, its southern tip will be extended from Azneft Square to the Bayil area of the bay and to the National Flag Square. It is noteworthy that in the event of any unforeseen problems, there is an alternative arena for the contest - the Tofiq Bahramov Republican Stadium whose reconstruction is also nearing completion.

IT Technology: Ready!

However, the construction of the country's most spacious concert complex and the modernization of transport communications and recreation areas near the National Flag Square are not the only measures within the framework of preparations for the Eurovision-2012 Song Contest. Ahead of the contest, work was completed in the capital to commission an intellectual transport system, which includes the installation of monitors with detailed plans of transport routes. Also, hundreds of shuttle buses have been delivered to Baku, which will serve the guests and participants in Eurovision.

As part of preparatory work, data terminals have also been installed on the seaside boulevard and other recreation areas in the historical part of the city. The guests and participants in the Eurovision-2012 contest will also be provided with new e-cards, which were recently integrated with the 3D version of the cultural and historical sights of Baku, as well as with an on-line navigator. Initiated by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, this trilingual system will allow foreign visitors to take detailed virtual tours of parks, libraries, museums, art galleries, mosques, theatres, cinemas, historical monuments, restaurants, etc.

At the same time, specialists of the Ministry of Communications have completed work on the creation of fibre-optic infrastructure, which connects the Baku Crystal Hall to the Baku television tower, the office of Public Television (ITV) and a TV station in Ganja. This system will help broadcast the performances of the song contest participants in HD (High Definition TV) between Baku and Frankfurt. It is also expected that by the beginning of the Eurovision Song Contest, residents and guests will get access to yet another innovative resource - mobile operators are preparing to launch a commercial service for fourth generation mobile communications. With the introduction of the 4G technology, ultra-speed Internet access and streaming multimedia applications will become available. In particular, this will allow subscribers to watch multi-channel high-definition (Full HD) television broadcasts, using mobile phones, smartphones and tablets. And thanks to the high speed of over 100 Mbit/s, even users in cars or public transport will be able to view the performances of Eurovision contestants.

Hotel business: ready...

The most important and difficult issue in the process of preparing for the Eurovision Song Contest was the activity of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to improve the quality of the capital's hotel and restaurant potential.

According to the Ministry of Tourism, by February 2012, there were 515 hotel-type facilities in Azerbaijan, while another 45 were under construction. In general, the capacity of hotels, boarding houses, camping sites, tourist bases, etc. in the country makes it possible to accommodate 32,000 guests.

At the same time, Baku has only 90 hotels with a total capacity of no more than 11,000 beds. And here the question arises - is the hotel infrastructure of the capital able to accommodate everyone? For comparison, last year's contest in Dusseldorf was attended by 1,500 members of national delegations, 2,500 journalists and over 80,000 visitors from fifty countries.

Nevertheless, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Tourism is full of optimism about the considerable influx of tourists expected in May this year. At the beginning of the year, on the initiative of the Ministry of Tourism, the capital's hotels suspended booking of rooms for the duration of the song contest.

According to the chairman of the Association of Tourism of Azerbaijan, Nahid Bagirov, in this way the Ministry of Tourism and the organizing committee of the contest are going to prevent overcharging at hotels during the contest and ensure normal accommodation for its participants. Today the number of official representatives who will visit Azerbaijan during the contest is approaching four thousand people, while applications have been received from three thousand tourists. However, the actual number of guests who may visit our capital city in May this year may be much higher - according to some estimates, more than eleven thousand people. In this case, if the capital's hotel potential is exhausted, the guests will be put up in rented apartments and villas. These apartments can be rented through the website Evrovizion.az. During the contest, some guests will be put up on comfortable passenger ships, each of which is able to provide cabins for 250 people.

Considerable assistance in putting up guests will be provided by the commissioning of new spacious hotels in Baku. Last year, as well as in the first half of this year, six five-star hotels have been opened in the capital. Three of them - Kempinski Badamdar, Hilton Bak? and Sheraton Baku Airport Hotel - are already in operation, while other luxury hotels such as Flame Towers, Four Seasons, Absheron-JW Marriot and Dedeman Hotels Resorts International are about to open. The total capacity of these facilities is about 1,000 beds.

Yet the basis of our country's hotel potential is made up of relatively small lower-class facilities. The need for such lower-class facilities is extremely high, particularly in Baku, where tens of thousands of travellers will come this May. "Given that most of the tourists are young people who plan to attend the music festival in Baku, the Ministry of Tourism intends to encourage businessmen to build and expand two- or three-star hotels," Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfaz Qarayev said. Small and relatively modest boarding houses and hotels have been successfully promoting Europe's tourism potential for more than a decade. And, apparently, the development of this trend is fundamental for our country for many years ahead and after the song contest.

The holding of Eurovision has a positive impact on the tourism industry due to the huge influx of those wishing to visit the contest and, more importantly, contributes to the radical improvement of the quality of service, development of the infrastructure and expansion of the recreational potential of hotels and restaurants in the capital. Work to improve hotels, restaurants and other service facilities in the capital has been carried out by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism since the middle of last year.

And since March this year, the ministry has been conducting special monitoring of the capital's hotels, assessing the quality of services and personnel training. At the same time, in the first decade of March, the Azerbaijani Institute of Tourism organized training courses for hotel workers. The ten-day courses on four subjects were conducted with the assistance of the Turkish Ministry of Tourism, as well as specialists of the TIKA company. After the course, participants were given certificates. On the initiative of the Association of Hotels and Restaurants of Azerbaijan (DAIR), contests were also held for employees of Baku hotels and restaurants, as well as training sessions in various areas of tourism services in the current and future months. In particular, the training covered such areas as tableware, restaurant management, buffets, food safety, hygiene, sanitation and first aid. These training seminars are conducted by professional trainers, and their participants will be given certificates, while those who distinguish themselves will be provided with jobs.

It remains to hope that with the combined efforts of hoteliers, restaurateurs, professionals of the Ministry of Tourism, the Association of Hotels and Restaurants of Azerbaijan and other public organizations, all tasks will be successfully resolved, and in May this year, our country will appropriately welcome the participants and guests of the European song contest.