The organisers of the Volvo Ocean Race Finale Festival will be making a decision within days on whether to make an application for Galway City to host the event again.
However, John Killeen, President of Let’s Do it Global, said that if they were to apply for it again, they would need the Government and the city council and businesses to make a strong commitment to give “a significant contribution.”
Let’s Do it Global is now in a strong position to make a bid to be a host port during the next race in 2014/2015 following the success of the past nine day finale festival, which attracted 900,000 footfall and is estimated to be worth €100million to the local economy.
At a press conference in Galway yesterday afternoon, Mr Killeen said: “The race finale and festival, which has just concluded, was a phenomenal success and has shown that the city has the capacity to stage one of the world’s biggest sporting and tourism events.” He also said that “if the city was to consider making a bid to become a host port new structures would have to be put in place and both the Government and the city authorities would have to make a significant contribution to the bid.”
Applications to be considered as a host port for the 2014/2015 have to be made by September and the race organizers will make a final decision on which ports will be selected in December this year.
Because it was a host port in this year’s event, Galway has automatically received an invitation for inclusion in the 2014/2015 race.
The Mayor of Galway, Cllr Terry O’Flaherty, said she would “love to see the Volvo Ocean Race returning to Galway.” She also said that the event had been a “roaring success “ and had given tourism in the city an “enormous boost.”
Mayor O’Flaherty also announced that she would like to see a permanent memorial erected in the city to mark the Volvo Ocean Race’s association with Galway.
Declan Dooley, President of Galway Chamber of Commerce, said that the Volvo festival was worth more than €100 million and surveys which were being carried out amongst businesses were indicating that many of them had received a huge boost, not just during the nine day festival but for several months in the lead up to the event.
Micheline McNamara, CEO of Let’s Do It Global, said that business people on the streets of Galway told her that the Volvo Ocean Race Festival was “like three Christmases coming at once.” She also said that she bumped into Mike Sanderson, Skipper of Team Sanya, on Shop Street and he told her that he was “sad to be leaving Galway after such a fantastic experience.”
FONTE: The Galway News - http://www.galwaynews.ie/26701-galway-may-bid-again-host-next-volvo-finale
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