Sanya Serenity Coast
Brand awareness, Business development, Tourism

• To promote the city of Sanya, China, as a tourist destination to UK, Australia, USA, Europe and other western markets, with its key message being that Sanya is a tropical holiday resort with white sandy beaches, an average temperature of 27°C and crystal blue water.
• To promote Sanya as the leading sailing destination in China, with its year-round idyllic sailing conditions and 5* rated marina facilities.

Sailing promotion

• First ever female winner of a round the world yacht race created significant exposure for Sanya on a global scale.
• Clipper Race introduced Sanya delegates to RORC and RYA officials.
• During the stopover, Sanya hosted the first ever In Port Race which was live streamed globally to over half a million viewers
• International crew members from the Sanya Serenity Coast team returned to Sanya in March 2019 to take part in Round Hainan Regatta, securing further sailing media coverage for Sanya in the UK and USA as a direct result.
• Sanya benefited from significant international media coverage as outlets followed crew members from USA, Japan, UK and Australia.

Media coverage

• 6,299 total news items.
• 1874 title mentions.
• 3108 subtitle mentions.
• £12.3m AVE.
• 134,409 views on the Sanya Serenity Coast team page.
• 51 countries reached.
• Media Highlights: The Guardian, The Daily Mail online, Washington Post, The Independent, Yahoo! Sports, LA Times, CHina Daily, El Observador.
• Sailing publications coverage; Sailword, Yachts and Yachting, My Sailing
• Top countries by mention: USA, China, UK, Australia, Canada.

International Visitors to en.Sanyatour.com

• 201% increase in international visitors per month.
• 163,000 visitors to the Clipper Race microsite.
• Increased visitors from: USA, China, UK., Australia [locations the race visits] and Russia [Russian crew member on board].
• New visitors from; Japan [Japanese crew member on board].

Advertising

• Clipper Race advertising campaign using Sanya Serenity Coast hero image across Sydney Harbour Ferries and RSHYR Magazine.

Tourism Promotion

• Visit Sanya booth at both Race Start and Race Finish exposed a predominantly western audience to what Sanya is why they should visit.

Soft power influencing and promotion

• Delegations from Sanya met the Mayor of Liverpool Mr Joe Anderson and the UK’s Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for International Trade, Mark Garnier MP.
• Intendencia of Maldonado, Enrica Antia [Mayor]
• John Boesche, vice president of Visit Seattle International Tourism and Marcus Carney, Tourism Manager of Visit Seattle,

Ambassador Programme

The Ambassador Programme, which was designed to help Sanya promote the city as a tourist destination and support the long-term development strategy of combining sports and tourism, also showcased Sanya as a sailing destination during the eleventh edition of the race.Meetings with RORC and RYA.

Race Village

A Sanya tourism-themed marquee at the Albert Dock, Liverpool, served as a window to showcase Sanya’s rich tourism resources, its beautiful natural scenery, and charming history and culture to global visitors at the Clipper Race Village. A Folk performance by Sanya’s Li People was given in front of the Sanya marquee. The performance attracted a large number of visitors, who were given souvenirs including handcrafts made of coconut shells and golf hats with Sanya’s logo.

Race Start

Led by Mr. Bao Jian, Executive Vice Mayor of the Sanya Municipal People’s Government, a Sanya government delegation arrived in Liverpool, UK, on August 19th, 2017. The Sanya delegation took the opportunity to arrange several business networking meetings in order to maximise their time in Liverpool; meeting with the Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson, Ralph Morton from the Seattle Sports Commission, and Mark Garnier, MP and Minister for International Trade. Each meeting gave Sanya the opportunity to discuss partnership collaboration.

Punta del Este Stopover

To explore the opportunities in Uruguay, Sanya Municipal Government sent a delegation to develop relationships.Utilising the Clipper Race business network during the visit, the Sanya delegation:

• Met the Intendencia of Maldonado [Mayor of the region] Enrique Antia, where discussions focused on how Sanya could become involved in the CHINA-LAC conference being hosted in Punta del Este later this year.
• Met Commodore Juan Etcheverrito, the visionary behind the success of Yacht Club Punta del Este. The Commodore travels all over the world to yacht clubs, building relationships and encouraging ‘twin’ status to develop sailing links. He also looks to develop sailing races – an objective both cities share.
• The Clipper Race also held a sailing experience for media outlets on board the Sanya Serenity Coast yacht. Outlets included participants from: national TV Channel 10, Channel 11, Channel 12, Punta Cable and national newspapers El Pais and Observador.
• Public Open Boat – 948 tourists and locals met the Sanya Race Crew and learnt more about the city of Sanya as a destination.

Cape Town

• Public Open Boat – 328 tourists and locals meeting the Sanya Race Crew to learn about Sanya.
• Sanya Government representatives [HOR] went to The University of Cape Town (UCT) to promote the tropical city of Sanya during the stopover in Cape Town.
• Sanya took the opportunity to engage with GMMG, a transnational media group, which resulted in a promotional radio programme for the city on national radio.
• Sanya also held a photoshoot of the Sanya Serenity Coast team yacht under spinnaker in front of the iconic Table Mountain for international promotional material.
• Clipper Race organised for Olympic swimmer Cameron van der Burgh and other sports stars to go out sailing on board the Sanya Serenity Coast yacht, it was filmed for a South African TV show. View the video here.

Fremantle

• The Clipper Race organised a media sail on board the Sanya Serenity Coast yacht.
• 212 tourists and locals met the Sanya Race Crew on Public Open Boat tours

Media coverage included:

• Channel 7 ‘Today Tonight’ – Interviews with Skipper Wendy Tuck. The story was the fourth most watched show in WA that night, pulling 1.248 million viewers.
• ABC Grandstand Radio – Australia wide, the sports programme ran two different interviews with Wendy Tuck, during the weekend breaks of the second Ashes test.
• Radio 6PR ‘Sportsday with Karl Langdon and Paul Hasleby’ – Ran feature length interviews with Wendy Tuck.
• News.com.au – the online version of the Daily Telegraph in Sydney, which was also syndicated in News Limited publications across the country, ran a story about Wendy Tuck heading home for her eleventh Sydney Hobart. Click here to read.

Sydney

• Sanya Tourism Commission hosted a travel industry tourism conference designed to educate key tourism media, travel operators and destination marketing professionals about China’s tropical island destination of Sanya.
• The Clipper Race organised a media sail with CNN, the Daily Telegraph and influencer Francesca Cumami who works for Channel 7 and ITV UK on board.

Whitsundays

• Public Open Boat – 221 tourists and locals met the Sanya Race Crew to learn about Sanya.
• Sanya Serenity Coast tackle a Southerly Buster
• Chinese New Year on board Sanya Serenity Coast

Sanya

• Sanya shines as international sailing destination - First ever in-port regatta. Watch Video
• For the first time in Clipper Race history, the entire Clipper 70 fleet took to the water at the same time for the inaugural Sanya Serenity Coast In-Port Regatta. Streamed live via nineteen online channels and on television in Sanya, people from all over the world were able to watch the first ever Clipper Race Sanya Serenity Coast In-Port Regatta in real-time from the comfort of their home.
• The In-Port Race streaming proved that there was huge interest in the race across China, as an incredible 567,646 people tuned in live across the region to watch it.

Race Village

• Sanya demonstrated its hosting capabilities by organising a comprehensive Race Village that provided experiential activities for visitors as well as information on the race. Visitors were kept busy trying out the Lego building centre, testing sailing skills with model yacht races, a Zorb Ball game area, or taking part in cosplay. Food stalls provided a welcome area to relax in and an opportunity to indulge in some Chinese favourites, whilst in the Clipper Race Dome, people had the chance to experience what life is like on board Sanya Serenity Coast through the power of virtual reality goggles, as well as testing their skills at the Marlow Rope Knot Tying Station.
• An impressive kite shoot was organised in Sanya Bay to display the city’s beautiful coastal setting.
• Over 1000 tourists and locals got on board the Clipper 70 sailing yachts for tours and had the opportunity to meet some of the intrepid Clipper Race Crew members who had sailed some 25,000 nautical miles over halfway around the globe.

Clipper Connect

• The first Clipper Connect Business networking event, held in partnership with Sanya Serenity Coast, was hailed a huge success by local government, tourism and Clipper Race delegations alike. The Clipper Connect Business Series provides a platform for the Clipper Race to connect like-minded professionals as the race travels the world and the inaugural event provided the ideal platform to showcase how Sanya is making its mark in the $7.1 trillion travel and tourism industry and why they chose the Clipper Race as the platform to support this.
• Spotlight on Sanya: Tropical ChinaStopover Wrap-up video. Watch Here.

The tourism industry in Sanya has been hailed as world class by the Clipper Race crew, following the successful inaugural stopover in China’s tropical paradise.

• Around 200 crew members from all walks of life, representing 22 different nationalities were in Sanya for nine days from 24 February until 4 March with the Clipper Race.
• Sanya is China’s top national holiday destination but is now aiming to make its mark in the $7.1 trillion global travel and tourism industry, so hosted a wide range of events to show off what makes it so popular.
• Visits to key landmarks, the Li Village and Chinese Cooking Classes.
• Early figures show that the crew fully embraced the local tourism industry and in total, crew took part in 139 tourism experiences, with Cirque du Soleil performance ‘Toruk’ hailed as the most popular.
• In order to give the Clipper Race crew a proper introduction to all the delights of Sanya, a number of tourism days were organised, including one planned and executed by the tourism body, Visit Sanya. One crew member from each of the eleven teams attended the day, which included a visit to the Nanshan Cultural Tourism Zone, Binlang Valley, and Romance Park, as well as meals at incredible local restaurants.“The whole day was incredible,” says 56-year-old New Zealand farmer Greg Glover, a round the world crew member on HotelPlanner.com.“Going out to the coast where the great Buddha statue is, the vegetarian lunch was amazing, just so tasty, seeing the traditional village was mind blowing and what a finish to the day at Romance Park. Jet skis on stage!“Thank you doesn’t seem enough for the day. Visit Sanya has got an amazing product and from a tourism point of view, the tourists that come here could be nothing but happy with what there is to see and what there is to do.”
• 76 per cent of crew admitted that they would have not considered visiting Sanya if not for the Clipper Race. But before departing for Race 8 of the Clipper 2017-18 Race from Sanya to Qingdao in northern China, more than a third of Clipper Race crew polled indicated they would like to return to Sanya, whilst almost half confirmed that they would recommend Sanya as a tourist destination.
• 8.39 Average length of stay
• ¥851.3 average spend per day per person
• ”Had an amazing experience.Lovely people!”
• ”We stumbled on local experiences that were fun - dancing on the street, delicious food in small shops”
• ”It’s amazing. Sanya was a beautiful city for tourists, I had a nice time and I'll be back to this city.”
• ”Exotic, interesting, fun! Liked it much more than I expected.”

Seattle

• Sanya ambassador crew of the Sanya Serenity Coast team shared their sailing stories with pupils of Westhill Elementary School. The Sanya ambassador crew showed their sailing kit and boots, and played a review video displaying how they crossed the Pacific Ocean. Finally a Sanya tourism video educated the students on the city’s tropical destination.
• John Boesche, Vice President of Visit Seattle International Tourism and Marcus Carney, Tourism Manager of Visit Seattle, had a friendly talk with Sanya representatives in the Washington State Convention Center, and communicated about the city’s tourism development.
• Over 200 tourists and locals took a Public Open Boat tour of the team’s yacht and heard about the city’s vibrant culture.
• A kite shoot was organised in the picturesque setting of Seattle’s waterfront.

Panama

• Following recently established diplomatic relations between China and Panama, the inaugural Chinese Ambassador to Panama, Wei Qiang, has described the Clipper Race as an inspiration and a positive step for Chinese sailing after being invited to meet with crew from Chinese entry Sanya Serenity Coast in Panama City.

NYC

• Nasdaq wall video -The USA is one of Sanya’s key markets for destination marketing so the New York stopover provided Visit Sanya with the perfect platform for hosting a tourism conference to introduce the tropical Chinese destination of Sanya to the American travel industry. Held at a private venue overlooking the Hudson River, the aim was to promote; Sanya’s image as a city; its tourism resources; cooperation and investment opportunities in Sanya; and to draw the attention of leading New York based travel and tourism industry influencers.