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 Its back! Few sports can match the intensity of the Volvo Ocean Race for thrilling competition, global, multi-channel exposure and unrivalled return on investment.
Ireland’s most exciting festival event will return to Galway as the final destination of the 2011/2012 Volvo Ocean Race. Starting in October in Alicante, the fleet with race south along the African coast to Cape Town, into the Indian Ocean for Abu Dhabi, before bearing east to Sanya (China) and onto city of the sails, Auckland (New Zealand). The route to Itajaí (Brazil) will see the fleet round Cape Horn, every sailor’s Everest. Next stop is Miami before a sprint across the Atlantic to Lisbon (Portugal) through the Bay of Biscay to Lorient (France) before the Grand Finale of Galway in Ireland. The Volvo Ocean Race finale in Galway will be “bigger and better” than anything Galway people have come to expect, based on the start of the event in Alicante last week. Let’s Do It Galway President John Killeen, who is in Alicante for the start of the race, said he had been impressed by the scale of events taking place there.
He said that, based on the size of this year’s celebrations, Galway is looking at a “bigger and better” event than the 2009 stopover. “We would certainly have far more foreign guests this time. The last time we probably had 3,000 to 4,000 and it will be more like 7, 000 to 8,000 foreign visitors this time because it is the end of the race. Everybody we meet here is planning to come to Galway and, of course, we are encouraging them,” said Mr Killeen.
Those foreign guests will include media crews from countries around the world who will cover the end of the race and Mr Killeen said that US network CNN were looking to book 25 rooms in Galway in the past week with CBS looking for 30.
“The final prize giving is expected to be a news item going out to three billion people worldwide and we have the leverage of that. It’s a rare opportunity for Galway and Ireland to have the leverage of such an event and, if we don’t [use that leverage to benefit Galway], it will be remissible,” said Mr Killeen.
This Global Village, which will be based at Nimmo’s Pier, is expected to be even bigger than the one in place for the 2009 Volvo Ocean Race stopover. It will have a footbridge connected to South Park and will have “many more pavilions” than in the pervious year, offering entertainment to the thousands attending.
“To give you a comparison, even in entertainment facilities in Galway compared to last time, the Volvo brought about seven or eight containers of entertainment [in 2009]. This time they are bringing 100. There will be a 3D cinema and all day long entertainment for family members, kids and even adults… This event has far bigger attendances [and] far bigger impact on the city of Alicante than ever before and that is why we have great expectation for Galway,” said Mr Killeen.
With a tv audience in excess of 1.3 billion, print media exceeding 1.6 billion and a radio audience of over 1.1 billion it is truly a global media power house.
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