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The 2013 Ironman pumped an estimated R61 million into the Port Elizabeth economy, according to a report submitted to the Sport, Recreation, Arts and Cultural Services Committee.
Council approved a new three-year agreement on hosting the event at the end of last year and will now be the venue until 2016.
In a report to the committee, the organisers state that the figure of R61 million is based on the Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism daily spend figure of R1 300 a day.
The 2013 event saw a total of 1 786 athletes competing of whom 430 were international competitors, the highest number ever, while some 90% of participants came from outside Nelson Mandela Bay.
The report says that hotels, bed and breakfast establishments and guest houses were nearly fully booked for the event while restaurants and entertainment facilities reported an increase in revenue of up to 30%.
Some 6 251 participants and supporters spent an average of 7.5 days in Port Elizabeth while an estimated 75 000 spectators watched the event.
It says that over 90% of service providers involved with Ironman South Africa were local.
With regard to skills transfer, the report says that over 1 700 volunteers and 50 team directors from Nelson Mandela Bay and surrounds assisted in hosting the 2013 event with institutions, schools and the community at large playing a crucial support role.
In addition, 20 unemployed community members were employed for 11 days for the construction of the event infrastructure and service providers employed an additional 20 unemployed community members for the duration of the event.
The report says that the estimated value of local media coverage was R11.9 million of which just over R6 million came from television coverage and R3.3 million from the print media.
The value of radio coverage was R1.5 million.
Internationally, there was exposure with television coverage in over 71 countries in the USA, Europe, Asia and Africa, with the event having ¡§the highest national and international TV exposure to date.
In addition, there were articles in 10 national and international magazines directly after the event.
(Source: Metro Minute to subscribe mail metminutes@iafrica.com)
