The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Marathon Bahamas organisers yesterday said they were “damn certain” the 2013 event will generate “north of 3,000 room nights” for the hotel industry, its development having “crystallised” what sports tourism could mean for the economy.

Franklyn Wilson, chairman of race organisers, Sunshine Insurance, told Tribune Business that Marathon Bahamas was on track for a 20-25 per cent year-over-year increase in international participants for the upcoming January 20, 2013, race.

Coupled with a likely 10 per cent increase upon 2012’s 600 local participants, Mr Wilson said Marathon Bahamas was likely to breach the 1,000 runner mark for 2013.

The Sunshine Holdings chairman said Marathon Bahamas had “exceeded by a tonne” its expectations since starting in 2010, and was now beginning to “scratch the surface” of what it could achieve.

Disclosing that one member of a prominent tour operator grouping, which specialises in sports and marathons, was now promoting Marathon Bahamas on its site for the first time, Mr Wilson said “at least” two sub-two hour, 30 minute athletes had been confirmed for the 2013 field.

If they produced such a time in the Bahamas, he added, it would increase the event’s stature in the marathon world and show “it’s a serious race” - boosting its potential for attracting an even larger field in years to come.

“The way we’re tracking right now, last time we had just under 400 international runners, and this year we’re pretty certain we’re going to get past 500,” Mr Wilson told Tribune Business.

“We’re tracking better than a 25 per cent increase in international runners. This is the Marathon proper, and each runner never, ever travels by themselves.”

Each international Marathon Bahamas participant spent an average of three nights in the Bahamas, and brought between two to three persons with them.

Taking the latter average as 2.5 persons, Mr Wilson said multiplying that by 500 international runners worked out as 1,250 visitors to the Bahamas. And, when the latter figure was multiplied by a conservative 2.5 room nights per person, the total Bahamian hotel booking impact came to 3,125 room nights.

“I’m damn certain we’re going to get north of 3,000 room nights,” Mr Wilson told Tribune Business.

That occupancy boost will arrive during a relative lull in the winter tourism season, with New Providence resorts coming off high New Year’s bookings and still gearing up for the February-April peak, so it could not be better timed.

“Let’s just put the beauty of what’s happening here in context,” Mr Wilson added.

“Let’s go back to the start of Marathon Bahamas. At that point, the idea of sports tourism was, at best, a big idea. Look at today; people are talking about medical tourism as a big idea that might be possible, but it hasn’t happened yet.

“This [Marathon Bahamas] is a significant contributor to sports tourism. The advent of Marathon Bahamas concretised the idea of sports tourism.....

“What has happened since then? The guys who tried to do a tennis open, that was a direct take-off. The marathon gave them the boost. The sports tourism message attracted Atlantis to crystallise the idea of going after the basketball tournament, and make a big difference in the Thanksgiving period.

“Since then, we will have the stadium finished extensively by 2014 for track and field.”

Noting that the whole sports tourism concept was a boost for the Bahamas as a whole, Mr Wilson said Marathon Bahamas had “exceeded by a tonne” the initial expectations harboured by Sunshine Insurance.

Among the confirmed runners for 2013 were Canadian, UK, US, German, French, Jamaican, Swiss and New Zealand nationals.

“We’re really beginning to scratch the surface,” Mr Wilson said, revealing that the 2013 event would be the first promoted by a major marathon/sports specialist tour operator to its global base.

He added that the Travel Operators United for Sport (TOURS) group, which had three dozen members, regularly generated 70 per cent of the New York Marathon’s participants.

Describing the group as those who “really push sports tourism around the world”, Mr Wilson said one member had, for the first time this year, placed Marathon Bahamas on its website.

This came after the New York Marathon’s cancellation due to Hurricane Sandy, and Mr Wilson said: “We benefited from that in the sense that the Bahamas attracted their attention. We really think that the impact of that for us is going to be particularly significant in 2014.”

And he expressed hope that a sub-two hour, 30 minute winning time for Marathon Bahamas 2013 would “catapult us even further”.

This, Mr Wilson said, would show Marathon Bahamas was “not a play thing; it’s a serious race”.

As for local participation in Marathon Bahamas 2013, the Sunshine Holdings chairman said: “Last year we had 600, and we’ll beat that by maybe 10 per cent on top of that, so we’ll break 1,000, that’s for sure.”

And, with the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure on January 19, 2013, set to attract 1,500 participants, more than 2,500 persons are likely to pound New Providence’s roads over a single weekend.

“It’s an incredible exercise in strategic planning,” Mr Wilson said. “When we started with this, we started with the simple notion of doing something - not a Marathon - that could impact the Sunshine brand.

“The idea of a marathon, where we begin to impact the country, is a fall-off from the strategic planning process. We didn’t start where we are. We will finish where we are.”