EURO COMPETITIONS FOR SOL RALLY BARBADOS TRIPS

The Barbados Rally Club (BRC) is stepping up its marketing and promotion campaign for Sol Rally Barbados 2011 (June 4/5) this week, with confirmation of extensive coverage – and reader competitions – in a cross-section of motoring and lifestyle publications in the UK and Ireland. Supported by the Tourism Development Corporation (TDC), this initiative brings the Caribbean’s biggest annual motor sport international - and the island which hosts it – to the attention of nearly 1.5 million readers, a large percentage of them in affluent and influential market sectors. Neil Barnard, the Club’s PRO, said: “We work hard to attract an increasing number of overseas competitors, and will keep doing so; but, thanks to the TDC’s support of our new plan, we have been able to spread our promotion far wider this year. The competitions we have agreed with our partner publications speak directly to our premier event’s position as an important cog in the sports-tourism wheel.” Under the tag-line ‘Rally to Barbados’, the competition offers the winners two economy return flights on Virgin Atlantic from London Gatwick, 12 days accommodation – this covers Shell V-Power King of the Hill and Sol RB2011 – and rental car for their stay. The London-based RunWild Media Group is featuring Sol RB2011 in the February issue of three of its free circulation lifestyle publications, Canary Wharf, City Magazine and Vantage, which enjoy a combined readership approaching 700,000; the first two are distributed to banks, businesses, gyms, private members’ clubs, hotels, bars and restaurants in the British capital’s two key financial centres, while Vantage circulates in the affluent north London suburbs of Hampstead and St John’s Wood. PaceNotes Rally Magazine, sold on subscription and in High Street newsagents, is based in Ireland, which has been the event’s most significant growth market in terms of competitors in recent years; a publication which has already given generous coverage to Sol Rally Barbados, the February issue will feature editorial, photographs and the reader competition, with further editorial features planned for future issues. Barnard noted: “We are really excited about the prospects for this promotion, and we still have a couple more media outlets to firm up. Canary Wharf, in particular, has become a major centre of motoring activity in recent years, with car shows, displays and test drives a regular feature of the area. Part of our arrangement is that there will be follow-up coverage in each publication, as they report on the event, and their prize-winners' experience of Barbados.” The Daily Telegraph, the UK’s most popular quality daily paper, with a circulation of 650,000, published a 20-page Travel supplement on Barbados in early January; within the general editorial on sports-tourism, Sol Rally Barbados was highlighted and illustrated in a separate panel. In addition, a two-page overview of Sol Rally Barbados was published in the Winter 2010 issue of Motorsports Now! The official organ of the Motor Sports Association, the UK’s governing body of motor sport, this full colour quarterly magazine is circulated free to all 33,000 competition licence holders, plus around a further 15,000 names, including registered officials, local motor clubs and the media.   First-time competitors boost growing entry list Twenty-five per cent of the entries so far received on-line for Sol Rally Barbados 2011 via the official web site (www.rallybarbados.bb) are from newcomers to the event; as the total heads past 40, nearly half of those listed are from overseas competitors, prompting a timely warning from the organisers. Sol Rally Barbados Chairman Barry Gale said: “While we are very encouraged to see new names being added to the ever-growing list of competitors we have welcomed to our shores, it is also perhaps time to nudge some of our local competitors. “I appreciate that there is still a little over three months to go before entries close on May 6, but we received more than 50 entries in February alone last year – that’s nearly two every day. I would urge anyone who wishes to enter, either from Barbados or overseas, to go on-line to www.rallybarbados.bb and do so very, very soon!” Sol Rally Barbados (June 4/5, 2011) and Shell V-Power King of the Hill (May 29) are organised by the Barbados Rally Club, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2007; Sol RB2011 is the 22nd running of the Club’s annual International All-Stage Rally and marks the start of a second three-year term of title sponsorship by the Sol Group, the Caribbean’s largest independent oil company. For further media information: e-mail - robin@bradfax.com web site: www.rallybarbados.bb