TT Visitors Down By 5%

[ManxTaxPayer]

Ok, link is a little light on detail, perhaps anyone who actually buys the paper can flesh it out a bit? It somewhat contradicts the notion that the TT is growing all the time. One of the comments suggests it's down to P and O offloading their fastcraft. I wonder what Vision Nine are planning to overcome the problem of lack of capacity?

[ManxTaxPayer]

A cynic might suspect a little gameplay in the ongoing user agreement saga. More relevant reading here.

[ManxTaxPayer]

Here's an interesting story from not so long ago. One hopes it isn't a precedent pop pickers!

 

Boardmasters festival axes world surfing event

 

 

A long-running international surfing competition in Newquay has been cancelled after sponsorship fell.

Boardmasters' organiser Vision Nine said Vans had pulled out and Relentless had cut its support.

Critics said the surfing competition, which has been held since 1981, had been "taken over" by the Boardmasters music festival which started in 2005.

But Vision Nine said it was a "sign of the economy" and it could not afford to put on the competition.

The Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Series competition which has been axed had total prize money of $180,000 (£116,550) last year.

In the past the event has attracted some of the world's biggest surfing names, including Kelly Slater.

But the event at Fistral beach has been dropped in favour of an open competition with £20,000 prize money.

Newquay surfboard shaper Nigel Semmens said: "It is disgraceful. Boardmasters is an amazing event, but has been taken over by a pop festival.

"If they have got enough money for a pop festival they have got enough money for a surfing competition."

Boardmasters music festival at Watergate, several miles from Fistral, and the surfing is expected to draw in about 100,000 people to Newquay, said Vision Nine.

But James Macintyre of Newquay surf shop Boardwalk said Boardmasters risked losing its credibility among surfers.

"It was a highlight of the summer, to be able to see the best surfers in the world on your local break," he said.

Andrew Topham of Vision Nine, which introduced music to the festival in 2005, said: "It's very expensive to run that level of competition.

"It's a sign of the economy at large and the surfing industry has been hit very hard."

He added that he was "really confident" that a major sponsor would return to Boardmasters in the future and an ASP event would be held again, possibly next year.

"We have welcomed the cream of the world's surfing community over the years but now want to open the doors to the local community and home grown talent," he said.

The open competition will include a women's section for the first time at Boardmasters since 1999 and two junior sections will also be introduced.

An ASP spokesman said: "It is very sad, and unfortunately it's not the only one we've lost this season.

"It's been hard for many organizers across Europe, but we're hopeful that brands will start investing in our sport and grow new projects as well."

[llap]

So 5 per cent less visitors. Maybe they should stop increasing the tax on local businesses to sell at TT venues/events or reduce it by 5 per cent.

[ManxTaxPayer]

Anyone else find this a bit jump the gun? It's like they've been running it for, like, forever...

[ManxTaxPayer]

I mean, they haven't actually produced one yet...

[woolley]

 

Here's an interesting story from not so long ago. One hopes it isn't a precedent pop pickers!

 

Boardmasters festival axes world surfing event

 

 

A long-running international surfing competition in Newquay has been cancelled after sponsorship fell.

 

It's OK. The sponsorship here is captive and reliable.

[Nom de plume]

I believe the average TT visitor would prefer to base their stay around the middle weekend incorporating the Superbike race & Mad Sunday.

 

The days of fortnight stayers are dwindling.

 

Vision Nine or whatever they are called will need to promote more events outside of that weekend, bike club meetings, concerts, etc during practice week & toward the end of race week.

[Mission]

I'm sure I read somewhere the other day that both the Steam Packet and the airlines have plenty of capacity to spare. I'll have to dig the article out later.

[Mission]

Vision Nine or whatever they are called will need to promote more events outside of that weekend, bike club meetings, concerts, etc during practice week & toward the end of race week.

 

Yeah, to be fair there is fuck all to do during practice week apart from watching the evening sessions. They could also do with spreading stuff out around the other towns so that not everyone has to converge on Douglas of an evening.

[Max Power]

I don't want to be a Negative Nelly in regard to this. I am hopeful that Vision Nine can deliver what they say they can. The original post related to claims that the TT may be 5% down due to Irish sailings. This may be true, but it hasn't happened yet?

Claims of growth have been spurious for years. We were getting 55-60k visitors through the nineties and early noughties, until SPCo and hotel capacity fell, we bottomed out at 31k in 2009 and have gradually climbed back to 42k. (The MGP was at around 10-12k visitors, the addition, and expense, of the CTT has brought that figure to 15k)

 

It's now up to Vision Nine to grow that figure

[slinkydevil]

http://visionninehq.com/our-events/

"Held on public roads, and in a time trial format, these modern day gladiators are now averaging over 130mph on the 37 mile course that takes in over 200 bends climbing from sea level to over 1300ft across the island."

[notwell]

 

Vision Nine or whatever they are called will need to promote more events outside of that weekend, bike club meetings, concerts, etc during practice week & toward the end of race week.

 

Yeah, to be fair there is fuck all to do during practice week apart from watching the evening sessions. They could also do with spreading stuff out around the other towns so that not everyone has to converge on Douglas of an evening.

 

They need to focus on the practice week of Thursday/Friday.

I suspect that race week will ultimately incorporate more races over more days.

[manxb&b]

I doubt they would risk scheduling anymore races with the amount of times a days racing is held over till the next day because of bad weather.

[manxie44]

So 5 per cent less visitors. Maybe they should stop increasing the tax on local businesses to sell at TT venues/events or reduce it by 5 per cent.

Are you seriously suggesting more Tax reductions for our Island, the greed is outstanding, but you and yours days are numbered