You are going where? To do what?

The establishment of McCluskey Sport has not only been a long held ambition but also a reaction to the rise in prominence of sport and the resulting trend of sports tourism. It is now common for schools, universities, clubs, couples, families and singles to travel in order to not only play but also watch their chosen sport – just check out the rise and rise of the travelling Barmy Army. This trend is something that we recognized and so using our experience and passion across the sports and travel fields – McCluskey Sport is the winning result…

So where exactly do people travel and why? The list is endless – take the World RPS championships in Toronto, yes indeed that is the World Rock Paper Scissors Championship, which is an international event…  Or perhaps more reasonably taking your football team to play Beach Football in Brazil (and before you sneer there is indeed a Beach Football World Cup) or what about playing cricket in Israel?

Too sedate? Well imagine, right now there are people competing in the 151 miles / six days race across the Sahara, the Marathon des Sables. Right now, this week. Next year it could be you??

Seriously it could. I used to think to myself, how do people get into those situations? How silly are they?. That is until I found myself agreeing to take part in the ITEX walk on Jersey.

The Walk on 20th June basically involves walking around the whole of the island of Jersey non-stop in a day. Not the Sahara race but at 48.1 miles, it takes quite a long time – you start at 3am and finish at something like 8pm. It was one of those things I said I would like to try in a whimsical manner and suddenly found myself agreeing to in a ‘ah what have I done’ way.

So there we are – travelling for sport again will I be, this time to Jersey. Wish me luck, I am currently in some sort of training, and hoping walking three miles to work every day will be the key to success – well 3 does go into 48…

(For the walk I am raising money for the British Heart Foundation and would therefore be grateful of any sponsorship you may be able to afford. If you can give something please visit http://www.justgiving.com/beckyaddley ).

England All Out in Jamaica

Curry Goat Cricket – that’s probably not a term you’re familiar with, I’d wager. But that’s how some in Jamaica described England’s performance in the first test. See this Daily Mail article by Martin Samuel for the full explanation.

Or, if that’s whetted your appetite, see this recipe for curried goat we uploaded onto the BBC Food website!

On a more serious note, in anticipation of the test series and cricket in general, we worked with the Jamaica Tourist Board to help promote and market Jamaica as a sports tourism destination. Activities included establishing a link with the Barmy Army (a loyal group of cricket fans who organize tours to follow the England Cricket Team on their overseas tours) to develop a series of promotional activities which will last beyond this current series.

You can see some of the resultant coverage here. The blog will be maintained and updated during the current tour.

We also hosted a series of meetings in Belfast and Dublin where West Indies legend Courtney Walsh, acting as a tourism ambassador for Jamaica, visited schools and communities and embarked on a media campaign. Coverage was achieved in  Sunday Life, Belfast  Telegraph, Good Morning Ulster, BBC Northern Ireland Radio, BBC Northern Ireland TV, Ulster-TV, RTE1, Irish Daily Mail, News Talk and 106-108 FM.

Walsh also appeared at a number of special events (including World Travel Market), spoke to tour operators and travel agents who sell cricket and sports related trips to Jamaica, and participated in a media campaign. Coverage was achieved on Talksport, and in the Evening Standard, Metro, Sun Online, The Barmy Army, Battrick, The Spin (Guardian blog) The Sun, All Out Cricket and Cricket World.

The highlight of this activity was an appearance by Courtney Walsh at an event in central London in association with Streetchance. We were delighted to see BBC Breakfast’s own Mike Bushell at the event, who even presented his TV report wearing a Jamaica T-shirt!

We also set up a Courtney Walsh Facebook page. Be a fan!

Sports tourism #2

As a follow up to my last post, I thought it was worth writing a little more about sports tourism. Sport is a major force in society and the sports tourism sector contributes over £1.5 billion a year to the UK economy. High profile events as the Olympics, Ryder Cup, Formula 1, Wimbledon and the Rugby Six Nations all attract increasing numbers of people wanting to travel both as spectators and to participate in sporting events and tours. See this article from the Independent travel section highlighting the many different ways to experience the Olympics.

We worked with the Piedmont region of Italy in the run-up to the 2006 Winter Olympics to heighten awareness of the region’s new skiing facilities: see this coverage in the Telegraph, and here in ABTA Magazine, and read here how much importance Piedmont attached to the 2006 Winter Olympics as a whole.

The recent America’s Cup in Valencia (a client of ours) gave us the opportunity to secure large amounts of PR coverage for the city in a wider range of media. We are delighted that the America’s Cup will be once again hosted by Valencia in 2009.

Soft adventure for beginners, like-minded singles and the older market is booming, and serious adrenalin-seekers think nothing of going to the other side of the world to find the best hiking trails, biggest surf; or most thrilling dive; no one is too old or too young.

From sky-diving above the Maldives (which we arranged for Johnny Morris, The Telegraph) to embarking on the world’s highest commercial bungee jump down the Gordon Dam in Tasmania (which we arranged for Charles Starmer-Smith, The Telegraph), we have discovered that nothing is too extreme to be tackled by a British writer.