International. Christmas lighting has become one of the bets of cities to encourage tourism, but this year there were strong budget reductions, especially in European cities, mainly marked by the economic crisis.
Many cities in European countries, especially those most affected by the crisis such as Spain, Portugal and Italy, reduced lighting costs by decreasing the number of lights installed, the time of ignition during the night, the days that the Christmas lights will be on and some had to take extreme measures such as non-installation.
In other cases, in order not to lose the tradition, some city administrations sought private financing for their Christmas facilities. On average, the reduction of the budget of Spanish cities in holiday lighting reaches 30%, but in extreme cases it can reach up to 80%.
But, fortunately, not all cities will lower the costs of the crisis. There are also cases in which the reduction is due to the use of energy-efficient luminaires and intelligent public lighting systems, which the industry has developed quite a few in recent years.
In the particular case of Latin America, where the economic crisis has not come so strong, the traditional Christmas lighting will be carried out in a traditional way but with the latest technology, such as those of Mexico City, Mexico, and Medellín, Colombia.
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