Carnival: It's A Fool's Business!

Every year, in the run up to Ash Wednesday , massive celebrations take over the carnival capitals Cologne and Düsseldorf and drum up big business. Priya Palsule-Desai has the facts:

Whoever sets foot in Germany's biggest carnival department store, Cologne's "Karnevalwierts", at the beginning of February will get flashbacks of the good old days of winter sales. Clowns and fools elbow their way through plush, glitter and wigs in search of the right costume.

About 15,000 customers a day, come to the store in the weeks running up to Rose Monday. Although you can buy a costume for under 10 euros, the average carnival die-hard pays an average of about 30 to 50 euros for the right devil's costume or nurse's uniform.

Toy and sweet industries get carnival boost

According to a Dresdner Bank study, the toy industry made a profit of almost 300 million euros from last year's carnival, and this seems to be on the up despite an increase in Value Added Tax (VAT) this year. Karnevalwierts' manager Frank Schröder explains why:

"The carnival customer is an emotional customer," he says. "The proper Cologne inhabitant would do anything for carnival. Because here it's a religion."

After costumes, sweets are the biggest money-making item -- in Cologne on Rose Monday, 150 tonnes of chocolates and sweets, aka "Kamelle," are flung at the crowds watching the parades, and in Düsseldorf it's 60 tonnes.

So what economic significance does carnival have for the sweet industry? Not that much it would seem. Torben Erbrath is a spokesman for the German confectioner's industry association and explains that "the confectionery industry is a seasonal industry and each season counts. But carnival doesn't even account for one percent of the total turnover."

"Easter and Christmas are far ahead," he says. "There are, of course, particular companies which have specialised in carnival. For the branch a whole, carnival does not play a very significant economic role but for individual firms it can affect profits by up to 50 percent or more."

Düsseldorf hotels see a downturn at carnival

Hotels and restaurants also get a bit extra in their tills at carnival. According to statistics, about 12,000 extra jobs are created between November and February and mostly in the restaurants located in the old parts of Cologne and Düsseldorf, where the clownish celebrations are concentrated. Profits soar in these parts, but on the cities' edges restaurants suffer because there are no customers during carnival.

The same goes for the hotel industry. During carnival, about 20 percent more people check into hotels in Cologne. The same cannot be said about Düsseldorf where hotels actually lose custom during carnival.

"Düsseldorf has the problem that during carnival business customers stay away but there isn't enough business generated by the carnival itself," says Thorsten Helweg who represents the hotel industry in North Rhine-Westphalia. "Carnival in Düsseldorf is big but it remains a regional event as opposed to Cologne which people visit from other areas."

Carnival in Cologne attracts 1.5 million visitors from all over Germany, as well as Belgium, France and Holland. The city makes about 330 million euros as a whole during the season and about 8 million of those find their way back to the municipal coffers. The manager of Cologne Tourism says that carnival is a "blessing for the city because it represents a fifth season -- an extra business opportunity which would not otherwise exist."