FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Premier on the
Gold Coast and Commonwealth Games
The success of the Gold Coast Airport Marathon is continuing with the
Queensland Government today announcing the annual event has secured
partnerships with six major overseas marathons and a potential global
television audience of 265 million people in more than 100 countries.
Taking the promotion of the Gold Coast Airport Marathon to a new
international level, partnerships have been established with major city
marathons in Kobe and Senshu (Japan), Auckland (New Zealand),Singapore,
Penang (Malaysia) and Shanghai (China).
These partnerships have been complemented by the screening of a one hour
highlights program of this year's Gold Coast Airport Marathon on more than
20 television networks around the world and today's release of the same
program for free global viewing on YouTube.
Parliamentary Secretary assisting the Premier on the Gold Coast and
Commonwealth Games, Peta-Kaye Croft, said the overseas marathon
partnerships and global television and online coverage would take the
marketing of the Gold Coast event to a new level.
"This event is getting bigger and better every year and establishing these
partnerships with major marathon events will generate even greater
awareness and interest in key markets around the world," said Ms Croft.
"Events Queensland Gold Coast, Tourism Queensland and Gold Coast Tourism
have been working hard behind the scenes to focus the event's marketing
efforts in Japan, South East Asia, New Zealand, China, Taiwan and Korea to
increase the event visitation from these countries.
"The largest television coverage of the Gold Coast Airport Marathon in the
event's history will only support these efforts, showcasing the Gold Coast
as a beautiful holiday destination and the Gold Coast Airport Marathon as
the marathon of choice for visitors to Australia."
One of the largest networks to telecast the event is Multi Channels Asia
which will screen the highlights program on Outdoor Channel HD this month
throughout Asia and the Pacific.
"Outdoor Channel is firmly focused on broadcasting the best of
Asia-Pacific's outdoor related sports and events, and the Gold Coast
Airport Marathon is undoubtedly one such event," said Gregg Creevey, the
managing director of Multi Channels Asia.
"Held against the backdrop of Gold Coast's iconic beaches and Broadwater,
the Gold Coast Airport Marathon provides the best of outdoor sports action
and an ideal picturesque setting."
The program has already been telecast in Japan on Fuji TV and J Sports.
Setanta Sports Africa, African Broadcasting Network, SuperSport and Zuku
Sports have featured the program in Africa and parts of the Middle East.
Other stations featuring the program include Setanta Sports Ireland and
Premier Sports (UK and Ireland); SportKlub, Sport TV, SPTV, Ring.bg and
Nova Sport (Europe); SCCN and Bandsports (South America); Guangdong Sports
Channel (China) and Astro Super Sport (Malaysia).
These stations are in addition to Channel Nine, NBN and Fox Sports which
telecast the program around Australia in August.
Events Queensland CEO John O'Sullivan said today's release of the
documentary on YouTube would only add to the global audience of the event.
"For all those people who missed the documentary on television, they now
have free access to the program on our YouTube channel," said Mr
O'Sullivan.
"Coverage through the internet is now as big as television and our
documentary will add to the audience generated by the event's live webcast
back in July."
This year's television and online documentary of the Gold Coast Airport
Marathon was produced by one80 Digital Post.
Today's announcement by the Queensland Government continues a great period
for the Gold Coast Airport Marathon which started with induction into the
Queensland Tourism Awards Hall of Fame last month for winning the award's
Major Events & Festivals category for three consecutive years. The event is
now a finalist in the Qantas Australian Tourism Awards to be held in Cairns
in March.
The 34th annual Gold Coast Airport Marathon will be held on the weekend of
30 June-1 July 2012. Visit www.goldcoastmarathon.com.au and
www.youtube.com/gcmarathon
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