Tour Down Under - Attracting Tourists to South Australia - Case Study Example

Tour Down Under: Student Name: University: Business: Instructor: September 9, 2013. TABLE OF CONTENTS Content…………………………………………………………………………………….Page 1. Introduction………………………………………….…………………………....3 2. Event impacts……………………………………………………………………......3 3. Event Stakeholders………………………….………………………………………5 4. Impacts of the TDU on stakeholders………………………………………………..6 5. Events and destination promotion…………………………………………………..7 6. Proposed strategies…….……………………………………………………………9 7. Attracting Tourists to South Australia…….………………………………………..10 8. Conclusion………...………………………………………………………………11 9. References………………………………………………………………………….12 Tour Down Under Event 1. Introduction Tour Down Under (TDU) event was originally launched in Adelaide (South Australia) in 1999. The event has gradually grown to become the biggest cycling race within the Southern hemisphere. TDU is a weeklong event, which brings the world’s top tour cycling professionals to take part in the race on the regional South Australia and streets of Adelaide every January. A number of top road cycling professionals have competed at the event over the last 14 years of the course including Australian cycling stars and winners of the Tour de France (Tour Down Under, 2013) The Town Down Under is a cycling festival, with a series of associated festivals and events, which bring a party atmosphere around the southern hemisphere. Amateurs can also take part by being involved in the Breakaway series, and this offers the community an opportunity to be involved in the World-Tour route race. The tour typically begins and ends with street circuits of the Adelaide City, with Stage 1 to 5 being held across the regions of the state. TDU provides a considerable contribution to the tourism industry of the state, and showcases the South Australian attractions to the world via the international television coverage. 2. Event impacts There are two major impacts of the Tour Down Under event, one being the economic development and two boosting tourism within the region. The start points and finish points are usually situated in places that attract interstate and global tourism (Barossa, wine region of McLaren Vale etc) or along the major streets that has huge concentration of retail stores (Rundle Street, King William or The Parade) for the objectives (Sustrans, 2009). The event is normally accompanied by community breakfast, markets, street festivities and other similar functions so as to keep the spectators and tourists alive within the locals and optimize any economic advantage. The organization and costs of such events are catered for by the host council, but sponsors always chip in to fund their part or whole of their budgets. The City Council of Adelaide is devoted to developing a vibrant city complete with popular and exciting artistic and cultural events. This great race goes for eight days and brings together the biggest professional cycling event in South Australia with a series of other events, which brings a week-long festivity across the southern hemisphere. The Tour Down Under is a very competitive event as it is the first road cycling race on the calendar of the UCI World Tour that brings together the highly prestigious teams, the greatest races, and the world’s top riders. Tour Down Under attracts approximately 800,000 spectators over the weeklong days of the event annually and about 40,000 of these onlookers travelled to the southern hemisphere from overseas and interstate particularly to view the race. This massive influx of spectators brings economic benefits. In 2013, the Tour Down Under generated about $43.6 million for South Australia (Eco tourism, 2013). The Expo and Tour Village provides the city center with excitement and color as well as offering the general public with a sort of a community space whereby they can directly engage with the cyclists, teams and the event. By hosting this famous event the e southern hemisphere and Adelaide receives international media coverage through television. The environment variables, social environments and physical spaces offer great opportunities and link places for event themed experiences. Tour Down Under event provides the physical environment whereby consumer experiences are generated and consumed and this boosts the facilitation and creation of consumer’s experiences within the region. 3. Event Stakeholders Spectators (visitors and locals): As indicated earlier, the event attracted about 800,000 spectators over the weeklong days of the event annually and about 40,000 of these onlookers travelled to the southern hemisphere from overseas and interstate particularly to view the race. About 50,000 locals and visitors visited the Bike Expo and Tour Village (TDU, 2013). Participants: The event welcomed local amateur cyclists and international professional cyclists. Professional cyclists: The event did not disappoint with either German Greipel Andre notching up his 100th cycling win and Dutch cyclist JT (Tom-Jelte) rejoicing his first World –Tour win. TDU also welcomed the 2010 winner of the Tour de France Andy Schlek, for the first time on the start list and the comeback of Philippe Gilbert being the reining UCI World Tour Champion who won the rainbow jersey. Host communities: The host community included the local community members, local businesses and suppliers. Major streets with significant concentrations of business outlets such as Rundle Street, King William or The Parade and global, Barossa and wine region of McLaren Vale witnessed the start and finish of the event live. Suppliers include organizations that supply various products such as water for participants and spectators. Media: The 2013 TDU cycling event generated media coverage of 24,500 items, which resulted to a calculated Public Relations value of approximately $150 million. The total coverage was 26 hours aired nationally on Channel 9. The event show a record 306 television broadcast hours that was screened globally hence promoted South Australia to the international audience (Government of South Australia, 2013). Co-workers: They include the hired security personnel to man the event. Partners and Sponsors: The People’s Choice has organized a three-year partnership with the TDU being the naming rights sponsor for the launching of the racing event. Just as it has previously been, the People’s Choice was a must watch event and they targeted 100,000 spectators to line up on the streets to have a glimpse of these global cyclists, including Andy Schleck (the star rider) (Cycling Fever, 2012) 4. The Impacts of the Tour Down Under on stakeholders Besides individual businesses gaining from the cycling event, the communities in the rural and in regional destinations can reap from the event. The relaxed and slow pace of this cycling tour event and cycling routes and infrastructure in Southern Australia indicate that participants stay and spend more in accommodations in great numbers compared to average visitors. The event provides significant tourism income in respect to the remote zones where the routes are situated. The establishment of cycling routes and infrastructure has provided the local communities with opportunities to diversify and assist maintain the developed infrastructure (Ritchie & Hall, 2009). The provision of attractive and safe cycling routes has spurred the demand of cycle tourism and offered opportunities for both tourists and locals. The establishment of cycling routes for tour has also created a focus for the sustainable development. The spin off impact for the Tour Down Tour include fitness and health to the participants. Organizing a successful global event, such as Tour Down Under generally has a positive effect to the stakeholders, and particularly to the local and regional communities engaged in the event. Such a success can inspire great interest in mountain-bike riding, road cycling and outdoor activities as well. Other impacts related to the event include; sense of achievement and aesthetic appreciation, learning benefits of the region and culture, increases family bonding when taking part as a family, meeting and engaging with like-minded persons, improving social interaction, community identity and sense of pride. The event has promoted cycling both as a sport and leisure activity as well as the sale of bikes. There also seems to be improvement on festival style functions, where either various cycling activities are conducted or cycling activities are combined with tourism activities and community events (Adelaide now, 2013). The event also has negative impact to the stakeholders, for instance the 20-minute closer of the roads to allow riders to pass interferes with the normal businesses of the public. Also, the restriction to Tour Village due to security reasons is a concern to many people. The event is aired in big screens and on amplified sounds which makes a lot of noise to the people within neighborhoods who are either busy with other things or uninterested in the event. 5. Events and Destination Promotion The course faces a challenge of converting more people and organizations to embrace and support cycling. Bicycles generate less pollutant, assist in minimizing congestion, less costly and easy to maintain, require less space on parking and road and are quite. Cycling is an option of transport that promotes a healthy lifestyle. The Events South Australia is the arm of the (SATC) South Australian Tourism Commission that deals with events. It is mandate is to promote the region as a tourism destination and attract visitors to the region by sponsoring, developing, managing and securing great events and championing the events sector. The body owns and successfully manages the Tour Down Under. SATC has sponsored over 50 events including the 2012 Australian Swimming Champions and WOMADelaide. SATC offers sponsorship support the event to enhance promotion and to eventually increase the size of this great event, through its Regional Festivals and Events Initiatives to support marketing programs of the TDU as a tourism destination. SATC researches and identifies opportunities to develop and or attract existing and new events and actively negotiates or bids for the targeted events. It takes a calculated approach to the creation of the event calendar of the state. It complements the core listing of this yearly event by securing a one-off event which allows for mass participation. This also makes it possible to have a balance of utilization of the event’s services, facilities and venues as well as enhancing city vibrancy and economic return as well. Public sculpture installations comprising some constructed from Hills Hoists are erected on roundabouts such as Stanbroke to promote the event, create awareness and celebrate the event when it arrives to the Cambelltown. This approach is a means of engaging with the public with the upcoming event and gets everybody taking about it. The sculptures constructed from bikes were donated by Rotary Club of Campbelltown were expected to spur public buzz around the city. These artistic installations were meant to be quirky, fun and make people glimpse twice. SATC also randomly placed a gold bike around the city for the public to find, take a photo and sit on. 6. Proposed Strategies: TDU strategies should be comply with SA tourism objectives which emphasizes health, quality of life, green and clean space, connection, plenty of activities, adventure, challenge and energy. The event should be viewed as a place that promotes cycling tourism and lifestyle differences which offer an active option to traditional sun and beach tourism. TDU strategies promote cycle tourism research and development to better understand the sector. Leverage and promote outback programs for instance the outback odyssey and events related to Mawson trail. Promote cycling and associated conferences to the region. Create a cycle tourism website which is linked to the South Australian website. Empower adventure-based operators, cycling industry and others to offer outstanding cycling package. This can be done by promoting further development of the current trail programs for example Southern Flinders mountain-bike trail establishment. Offer business development support for the existing and new cycle tour operators. Promote bicycle-friendly services and accommodation. Improve cycle tourism network and infrastructure, including accommodation, signage and trail development in Clare Valley regions and southern Flinders zone. In respect to services, events and products, conduct a survey on consumer expectations before the event and before visit and the same on consumer satisfaction on post visit or post event to develop benchmarks for customer satisfaction and service quality. Explore maximum opportunities on public and private land, comprising areas within the control and care of the Environmental and Heritage Department. Promote the development cycle infrastructure for instance the bicycle facilities at signage, storage, bike racks and transport interchanges. 7. Attracting tourists to South Australia Sport tourism is one of the world’s fastest emerging industries and in Australia it has emerged as a significant niche market. The attendance of TDU has rapidly grown in 357, 000 in 2007 to 770,000 in 2013. The event has received a number of awards with the latest being the Australia’s Best Tourism Event. The growth of TDU has attracted high profile global cyclists, combined with local talent such as Jack Bobridge. The tour runs through urban circuits, Clare Valley, Barossa, Riverton, Sandleworth, Norwood, Hahnorf among other marvelous towns. South Australia is a great summer destination as the world’s famous cyclists make their way to Adelaide, for the annual Tour Down Under cycling event. The first event on the world cycling diary, the TDU is the only ICU global race in South Australia, and attracts nearly a million spectators both locally and internationally. Tourists to southern hemisphere can spend their moments soaking up the atmosphere of the week-long global event, following the peloton as it circumvents the regional southern hemisphere. The event visits some of the Australia’s quaint towns, stunning beaches, and picturesque wine regions, before participants’ battle it down for what has is always a thrilling finale on the Adelaide streets. Every year, TDU attracts more international cyclists, comprising the likes of star sprinters Andre Greipel and Mark Cavendish as well as Australian star Robbie McEwen and the winner of the Tour d France Cadel Evans. (Tourism SA News, 2013). The southern hemisphere is the only habitat of Kangaroo Island commonly referred to as Australia’s Galapagos, the great Barossa wine region and the charming city of Adelaide, which is the fourth biggest city of the six states of Australia. The city itself is a wonderful jumping off site to tour the region. The city is surrounded by parklands and hosts over a million residents and the CDB is one mile square, ideal for exploring great restaurants, fine museums and the legendry central market, the biggest covered market within South Australia. Southern hemisphere is wine lovers’ haven. More than 60% of all wines exported from Australia originate from the state’s top wine zones; the Coonawarra, the Clare Valley, Barossa Valley and others. Soft escapade events such as mountain biking, diving and hiking flourish in this nature-filled region. In fact, the southern hemisphere possibly has the most accessible/reachable wildlife in Australia. Some of the favorite sites to glimpse it are the rugged Flinders Ranges, thrilling Kangaroo Island and the charming Gawler Ranges. Famous as the Outback Gateway, Southern hemisphere is also a home to Coober Pedy, the global opal mining center. 8. Conclusion The study has shed light on a number of aspects of the eventscape and highlights various views on the analysis of the TDU to be looked into in the future studies or experiences. The study revealed that TDU strategies should be comply with South Australian tourism programs, which emphasizes health, quality of life, green and clean space, connection, plenty of activities, adventure, challenge and energy. TDU ought to be viewed as a place that promotes cycling tourism and lifestyle differences which offer an active option to traditional sun and beach tourism. There are two significant impacts of the Tour Down Under event, one is the economic development and the other is improving tourism within the region. 9. References Eco tourism, March 15th 2013, retrieved from http://www.downundertours.com/greenpolicy.pdf Tour Down Under, data, April 19th 2013, retrieved from http://tourdownunder.com.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/3521/2010TDUrouteslaunched.pdf Tourism SA News, June 2nd, 2013. Retrieved from: http://www.tourism.sa.gov.au/news/current.asp Cycling Fever, September 5th 2012 retrieved from: http://tdu.cyclingfever.com/ Adelaide now, October 1st 2012, retrieved from: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/in-depth/tour-down-under Latest news on Tour Down Under, October 5th 2013,retrieved from http://www.tourdownunder.com.au/news--and- media/latestnewsreleases/2010mediareleases/tourtownsdresstoimpress Ritchie, B & Hall, C.M, (2009). Cycle Tourism and Regional Development: An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality. Vol. 10 (2) pp. 89-122. Sustrans, Cycle Tourism-Information Pack TT21, 2009. Retrieved from: www.sustrans.org.au Government of South Australia, SA Rides high with $12.5 m Tourism windfall, News Release, Sunday, 4 May 2013. Tour Down Under 2013, corporate website, www.tourdownunder.com.au/‎. Read More