Liverpool
Destination / Host City, Media, Tourism

• To promote the Liverpool 2018 brand globally.
• To collaborate with Clipper Race partners to drive awareness of the Liverpool 2018 campaign globally.
• The Liverpool 2018 campaign aims to attract audiences of millions of people, create significant economic impact and push Liverpool to the top of the ‘must-visit’ cities lists in 2018.

Race Start

• 220,000 spectators visited the Race Start village in Royal Albert Docks.
• 1,127 visitors toured the Clipper Race Open Boats during the Race Start week.
• The projected economic impact of visitors directly attributed to the Race Start in Liverpool was an estimated £7.5 million.
• 31% of visitors to the race village came from elsewhere in the UK and 10% of visitors where from overseas.
• High visitor satisfaction with event quality, venue and value for money being classed among the feedback highlights. .
• 82.2% of visitors would recommend the event, and 91% of visitors said that they were likely to return to Liverpool again.
• The Clipper Race drew a higher proportion of visitors from further afield and abroad than other recent events in the Liverpool cultural programme - many of whom stayed in Liverpool for a number of nights.

Race Finish

• 60,000 spectators for Race Finish day, 28 July 2018.
• 2,193 visitors toured the Clipper Race Open boats.
• The projected economic impact of visitors directly attributed to the Race Finish in Liverpool was an estimated £4 million.
• 42.4% of visitors where not from the North East of the UK and were travelling from elsewhere in the UK or abroad.
• 31.7% of visitors were staying at least one night in Liverpool, with the average length of stay for attendees was 2.9 nights with two thirds of these staying in paid accommodation.
• Over 85% of attendees said they were very likely to recommend the event, with no respondents stating they were unlikely to recommend the event.
• 95% said they would likely return to Liverpool, suggesting the event had helped in attracting and retaining visitors to the City of Liverpool.

Media coverage at Race Start/Finish and of Liverpool 2018 yacht globally

• In excess of 5,000 news items.
• 10,793 Social Media mentions
• £7.5m AVE.
• National coverage highlights included BBC News Channel and BBC Breakfast features, BBC Radio 4, BBC Northwest, ITV, Channel 4, The Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph, ABC News, Australia, Channel 9 News, Australia, Sydney Morning Herald.

Activation

• Liverpool Mayor, Joe Anderson hosted a business networking and celebratory event to witness the Race Start overlooking the River Mersey. Key representatives from local Liverpool businesses, Clipper Race Partners and national and international delegations, were in attendance to see the action unfold on the river and learned of the opportunities available to them in Liverpool as part of the new Liverpool 2018 campaign.
• Vice Mayor of Liverpool, Councillor Gary Millar, joined the Qingdao Clipper Race stopover as he spent an afternoon with the City’s Clipper Race Team Entry, Liverpool 2018, as he strengthened ties in the country as part of a visit that included attendance to the Clipper Race partner GREAT Britain’s GREAT Festival of Innovation, held in Hong Kong from 21 to 24 March.
• Clipper Race Team Partners GREAT Britain and Liverpool 2018 put their sporting rivalry aside and joined forces, at an event held on Seattle’s iconic waterfront. The evening, hosted by British Ambassador to the USA, Sir Kim Darroch, and International Business Festival Director Ian McCarthy, brought together senior executives from State of Washington based companies to celebrate and showcase what the UK has to offer in trade and business.The reception was part of a special programme of events ahead of the International Business Festival, which is one of Liverpool 2018’s programme of events and is also supported by the GREAT Britain campaign.

Liverpool International Business Festival Director, Ian McCarthy, encouraged Seattle based businesses to attend this year’s event. He said: “Liverpool hosts the International Business Festival on behalf of the UK in June this year. It will provide businesses with inspiration, information and a place for benchmarking their companies with the best in the world. But it is also a place for money-can’t-buy connections to stimulate creativity across creative, life science and tech sectors.”

The Clipper 2017-18 Race Finish was part of Eighteen for 18 – a series of internationally significant events, exhibitions, seasons and performances which shone a light on the importance of culture within the ongoing renaissance of the city, and how it plays a key role in the blueprint for the success of the Liverpool City Region moving forward.