5 November 2001

FACTSHEET ON THE TRUE MEANING OF THE VOLVO OCEAN RACE

The three-week Cape Town stopover in the Volvo Ocean Race has impacts far deeper than the race itself. It’s not the event that counts - it’s what you make of it, says Pat Lennox, Head of the Events Office at the City of Cape Town.

His job is to give all possible support to the organisers of major events so that the maximum is extracted in terms of the economic and social impacts such as international publicity for Cape Town through the media and the Internet, side events, tourism, and massive corporate spending in the city by the yacht sponsors.

Visitors: Only the crews are in the Volvo Ocean Race for the yachting. It’s about image, and the vast expense of running a yacht in a major round the world race is paid for by corporate sponsors - sponsors of the race itself and sponsors of the individual yachts.

Because of the romance of Cape Town as an exotic port city, it is the perfect place to entertain important corporate clients. These people are flown in from around the world.

The sponsors and other followers of the Volvo Ocean Race have booked 3 000 bed-nights in Cape Town. If one spends say R2000 a night, this alone amounts to R6 million of spending in the city. But corporate spending runs way beyond this and entertaining is into the millions of Rands.

Each yacht is funded by a syndicate. One of the main sponsors, for example, is the News Corporation owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch. He will spend millions on the race, but in return he gets publicity and leverage in the markeplace. To these sponsors, the return on investment is worth it.

Profile of Cape Town: This city can’t divorce itself from its history as a port or its geographic location at the southern tip of Africa. Because of its position, Cape Town is an obligatory stopover in round the world races.There are nine stopovers in the Volvo Ocean Race, but Cape Town is just about a certainty.

By comparison, the race organisers could choose from any one of several possible stopovers on the Eastern Seaboard of the USA. They have to bid for a stopover, but we don’t.

Tied to the sea, and with a strong nautical history, Cape Town captures perfectly the modern spirit of adventure. Bearing these facts in mind, the city would be foolish indeed not to seize this opportunity to build its profile and image as a world-class destination.

The profile is built through intense media interest in the race. A large contingent of reporters is sponsored by Volvo, and publicity comes through websites, press, radio and television coverage, magazine articles in publications like National Geographic, and so on. So the city benefits from the profile of yachting, and yachting benefits from the profile of the city.

Other things: While the iron is hot, the city uses the race as a catalyst for many other positive spin-offs. One of these, for example, is the initiative of the Events Office - but taken up by Wesgro and the DTI - to encourage the Volvo Stopover Committee to focus attention on our boatbuilding industry. As a result, the boat builders will have a boatbuilders’ conference here which will unify the industry and help them to sell their world-class products and services overseas.

By virtue of being stopovers, the nine ports used in the race are bound together in various ways. Cape Town has decided to have a presence at Miami and Gothenburg. These ports provide another ideal opportunity for Cape Town to sell tourism, crafts, wines and the boatbuilding industry. Platforms for selling the city are arranged through the embassies, which are naturally keen to make reciprocal arrangements.

(Note to reporters: This information could make an interesting feature alongside the reporting on the actual event and the arrival of the yachts.Not many people will be aware of these other important aspects. If you would like to interview Pat Lennox, call Shanaaz Adams at Rosemary Hare Public Relations on (021) 465 - 1166 and she will make the arrangements.)

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