Powerboating tests to attract up to 200,000 visitors to city

Date Published: 20-Dec-2009

THE local organisers of the World Powerboating Championships, which will be staged in Galway next Summer, have ratcheted up their preparations and planning for the event, which is expected to attract around 200,000 visitors to the city and Salthill.

Galway’s successful bid to host the competition was confirmed at last week’s City Council meeting when the City Manager pledged €25,000 in ‘seed funding’ for the prestigious event, which has the potential to inject up to €30 million into the local economy.

Despite the City Council’s support, there had been fears that a lack of funding could scupper Galway’s chances of hosting the event but, following a meeting between the Galway organisers and representatives of the World Powerboating Championships in the city on Tuesday, it’s now “all systems go”.

Although the funding of between €500,000 and €700,000 needed to stage the event has not yet been secured, the people responsible for securing the event for Galway are confident of attracting significant private funding and state support.

John Killeen, who secured the Volvo Ocean Race in 2009 and was central to attracting this Powerboat Championships, told the Galway City Tribune that Tuesday’s meeting was very positive and added “it’s full steam ahead now”.

“We are going full steam ahead and planning everything as if we had the money. We have to encourage more of these types of events, particularly in the current climate to help tourism and business. We have to be proactive and invest in this. We spent about €10 million on the Volvo Race and the return on that investment was at least €55 million and the legacy of the race will reap much more.

“We expected 300,000 but more than 600,000 came to the city and, while the Powerboat will be much smaller, it will still bring about 200,000 to the city and Salthill. We are ploughing ahead with our preparations and planning now and we will hear about our funding application in January,” said Mr Killeen.