Volvo race making an early impact

FULL SAIL: Team Alvimedica’s vessel arrives in Newport in June. Having Charlie Enright of Bristol on Team Alvimedica as the hometown American in the race has added to the local attraction, according to Sail Newport’s Brad Read. / COURTESY TEAM ALVIMEDICA
FULL SAIL: Team Alvimedica’s vessel arrives in Newport in June. Having Charlie Enright of Bristol on Team Alvimedica as the hometown American in the race has added to the local attraction, according to Sail Newport’s Brad Read. / COURTESY TEAM ALVIMEDICA

Still 11 months away, the Volvo Ocean Race has captured 4,500 nights of lodging already – a growing number not only in Newport County, where the race will makes its stopover, but in Providence as well.
Primarily for the tail end of the race’s Rhode Island visit set for May 5-17, 2015, those room reservations include 3,000 under contract in the Newport area and 1,500 in Providence, said Laurie Z. Stroll, president and owner of Newport Hospitality, a destination-marketing firm booking reservations in partnership with Sweden’s Hansen Event & Conference, a travel agency appointed by Volvo.
“Rhode Island is the venue for the Volvo,” enthused Brad Read, executive director of Sail Newport, referring to those numbers. “This is a global event, and we’re seeing the uptick in hotel-room reservations in Providence as a sure-fire proof of that. It’s not just a Newport County event.”
According to Stroll, the 1,500 nights do not include other “blocks” of hotel rooms that are on hold in Providence pending review and signing of other contracts. But most of the 4,500 nightly stays are for the Volvo customers who not only will be taking in the race but participating in promotional events surrounding the Volvo brand and products, she said.
In addition to Volvo Cars, the Volvo Group includes divisions for trucks, construction equipment, financial services and other products, she said.
“As far as Volvo is concerned, they want to paint the state ‘Volvo,’ because it’s not just Newport,” Stroll said.
The international sailing race starts Oct. 4 in Alicante, Spain, and finishes in Gothenburg, Sweden, on June 27, 2015. Newport’s stopover from May 5-17 is the only North American respite of the entire race. The last weekend will focus on an in-port race on Saturday, May 16, and the beginning of the next leg of the journey to Lisbon on Sunday, May 17.
A new, 240-foot pier at Fort Adams State Park enables the yachts to dock there, and Fort Adams will become Volvo Ocean Race Village during the stopover, featuring product demonstrations, marketing pavilions and other activities, said Read and Stroll.
The new pier will be ready by February, Read said.
After an absence of nearly 30 years, the return to Rhode Island in 2012 of another premier event, the America’s Cup World Series races, produced an economic impact of $38 million for businesses in the state, $12 million for 345 jobs and $2.5 million in general state tax revenue, according to a report generated last year by the predecessor to the R.I. Commerce Corporation. As the lone North American stopover instead of being one of four, the Volvo has the potential to have an even greater impact than the America’s Cup series races, said Marcel Valois, Commerce Corporation executive director.
“What we’re trying to do is position Rhode Island and its sailing venue as pre-eminent in the world – for future sites for Olympic trials, competitive international sail racing, collegiate events, different regional sales competitions,” Valois said. “We want to be able to market Fort Adams, Newport, Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island as a place for sailors who have sailing in their DNA. We want this to be the place in the country, if not the world, where people can run those events.”
Valois and Paul Harden, a member of Commerce Corporation’s client-services team, who was executive director of the America’s Cup World Series in Newport in 2012, said that about 60,000 people attended that event.
“We’re seeing more corporate sponsorships than we saw in the America’s Cup, and people are coming here because the Volvo is here. Then you have the team sponsors, and they’re also going to have pavilions at Fort Adams,” Harden said.
Confirming the business-to-business commerce that is expected, Tom Touber, Volvo Ocean Race chief operating officer, said in an email, “If this is the success we expect, then Newport will turn into the heart of North America’s Ocean Racing. … And then it will be very hard for us to select another port in the U.S. for the next race.”
He described the potential appeal also to the general public, through a new “Race Village Experience that will include public attractions about the extreme sport of long-distance sailing and features on teamwork.
“We are absolutely not focusing on sailing fans only,” he wrote. “I am sure for those who will come from the broader New England region, it will be a great family trip and family time well-spent.”
In Providence, the Renaissance Providence Downtown Hotel is holding two confirmed room blocks of undisclosed size, said Joan Esneault, area director of sales and marketing. Some are for guests of one of the race teams, which she declined to identify; others are affiliated with Volvo, she said. “We are happy with that, because it comes with them doing food and beverage and staying three to four nights for each of the groups,” she said.
Other hotels, such as the Providence Marriott Downtown, are just as eager to fill a large block that is on hold, pending confirmation of a signed contract, said Amanda Conway, the hotel’s director of sales and marketing. However, while May is the shoulder season for waterfront properties, the Marriott is expected to be in “high demand” for graduations, weddings and sporting teams then, she said.
“What this is doing is spreading the tourist season using a marine event, which has never been done before,” he said. “People are going to have to activate their plans a little earlier.”
And while the general public for the most part is waiting to do that, global Volvo customers are locking in rooms now, Stroll said.
“We’re used to this level of client entertainment,” Stroll said of the work her firm does, “but this is truly the biggest thing that’s ever come to Newport.”
Newport has hosted the biggest sailing event of them all, The America’s Cup main event, but not since 1983.
Tim Walsh, vice president of sales for Discover Newport, thinks that as big an economic impact as those 1983 races had locally, the Volvo stopover will exceed it.
“We’ve got a lot more hotel rooms today than we did in 1983, we didn’t have social media then, and in 1983, the teams would rent out a house, and some hotel rooms would be utilized, but this is just a different animal where the teams are taking over entire hotels,” he said. “This will be the biggest event that Newport has seen.”
Martha Sheridan, president and CEO of the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau, said Providence is likely to be “a very pleasant surprise” for guests and will complement stays in the well-known sailing destination that is Newport.
In Newport, larger blocks of rooms are sold out for some of the weekend days on May 15-17 at the four hotels in the city – the Newport Harbor Hotel and Marina, Hyatt Regency Newport, Newport Marriott and Hotel Viking, Stroll said.
Newport Harbor Hotel and Marina is sold out on May 15 and May 16, and demand is heavy for the 17th, said Debbie Meves, director of sales and marketing.
“The race is … creating interest in Newport as a destination, but there are also crew and media that need to arrive before the boats arrive, so it’s creating an impact on occupancy,” she added. Overnight guests are able to go to Fort Adams to view the race because they have water access either by boat or, it is expected, by water taxi, she said. The hotel and marina is working with both Sail Newport and Newport Hospitality, she said.
The growing impact “is pretty historic,” noted Kerri Quinn Jaffe, chief marketing officer for Newport Harbor Corp., which owns the Newport Restaurant Group, the Castle Hill Inn and the Newport Yachting Center Marina and Events Venue, citing corporate bookings made a year in advance for rooms and eight restaurants around the state.
The corporation also is coproducing two to three concerts for the stopover with Sailfest, Volvo and Live Nation.
Having Charlie Enright of Bristol on Team Alvimedica as the hometown American in the race has added to the local attraction, Read said. Enright’s team will join Team SCA (with fellow American Sally Barkow onboard), Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, Dongfeng Race Team and Team Brunel in the race, which will be contested over nine months and 38,739 nautical miles.
In Newport from June 9 through July 9, Enright and his team have been sailing with supporters in Narragansett Bay, and was scheduled to hold a naming ceremony for the boat last week.
“We’re just trying to log the miles, put the team together, stay healthy and fit, and keep our heads above water,” Enright joked.
For sponsor Cem Bozkurt, CEO of Alvimedica, the return on investment hasn’t been quantified yet, “but it is very clear, being a young company, our name is not known around the world. Now, I am getting almost 50 emails a day. The general public around the world is now pronouncing our name,” he said.
Turkey-based Alvimedica, which makes stents, balloon catheters and other cardiac medical devices, sought Enright’s young U.S. team to match the company’s youth “because the U.S. is one of the future markets we’ll be working in,” Bozkurt said.
Myrna George, president and CEO of the South County Tourism Council, which represents towns from North Kingstown to Westerly, said her region is also seeing evidence of pre-booking.
“Everyone [is] pulling in the same direction right now to ensure there are wraparound activities, as well as opportunities for people to enjoy the southern end of the state,” she said. •

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