Report to show Volvo Race generated €80m

THE financial windfall from the visit of the Volvo Ocean Race to the city last Summer – now expected to exceed all previous targets – will be spelled out in ‘black and white’ next week in an independent financial report.

The report – carried out by the Deloitte financial services group – will be published next week and is expected to show that visit of the ocean race to the city, was worth in the region of €80m.

A second report, compiled by the IFM group, will also evaluate the media impact – both nationally and internationally – of the Volvo Ocean Race to Galway on its stopover from May 23 to June 6 this year.

A spokesperson for the Galway Volvo Ocean Race Committee said that the publicity which the race generated for Galway “just could not be bought” – images of the city and the harbour went all over the world.

“We were also blessed with wonderful weather for the event which helped us greatly. Galway as a tourism and maritime destination was showcased all around the world,” said the spokesperson.

Over the course of the event there were 650,000 visits to the Race Village at the Docks which massively exceeded the ‘expectation figure’ of 140,000.

Galway will be a making strong pitch to be chosen as a host location for the 2011/12 event, but critical to this will be an Irish entry for the race at a cost in the region of €20m involving a global sponsor.

“It’s early days in terms of the next race but an essential will be an Irish entry for the race. The success of the Summer’s event is, of course, a big plus for us,” said the spokesperson.

The city is also strongly pitching for the hosting of the Powerboat World Championships next summer – representatives of that organisation were reported to be ‘highly impressed’ with Galway’s handling of the Volvo Ocean Race event.