The Tour de France

Executive Summary

1.1 Introduction and Description of the Tour De France

The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covered more than 3,600 kilometres (2,200 miles) and lasted three weeks. Nearly 200 riders begin each tour on the first weekend in July (Thompson, 2008). The number of teams usually varies between 20 to 22 teams, with nine riders in each team. No set numbers of stages are required in the Tour each year, but in recent years, at least 20 stages have comprised the race. The cyclist with the lowest cumulative time after the 20 stages wins (Liggett et al, 2005).

This report aims to examine the development, management, impacts and success of this event and how it could be successfully replicated in Northern Ireland.

1.2 Background and development of the Tour De France

A hundred summers ago, the Tour de France was born out of political conflict, and from a circulation war between competing sports journals. An editor of one these journals - Henri Desgrange, decided that he needed a sensational publicity venture to attract new readers. He himself was an enthusiastic cyclist and cycle racer.

A six-day race was suggested all around France. Long-distance cycle races were a popular means to sell more newspapers. If it succeeded, it would help the journal match its rivals. The first Tour de France was staged in 1903 and the plan was a five-stage race from 31 May to 5 July. Stages would go through the night and finish next afternoon, with rest days before riders set off again.

This proved to be too daunting and the costs were too great for most and only 15 entered. Desgrange cut the length to 19 days, changed the dates to 1 July to 19 July, and offered a daily allowance of five francs to riders. Since then, the Tour De France is unarguably an important sporting and cultural event. It attracts popular attention that every year confirms its status as one of the premier sporting events in the world. The Tour de France remains, after a century, unarguably the greatest cycling race in the world (Dauncey and Hare, 2003).

1.3 Details of the Tour de France.

Today, the Tour de France is an annual event, covering approximately 4,000 km during the 20 different stages. The race has also been known to cross the borders of France into neighbouring countries, and also to visit other countries in Europe for certain stages of the Tour e.g. Italy, Belgium, Spain and England (Bull and Lovell, 2010). The route changes each year, with different towns bidding to host a particular stage. A map showing the Tour’s 2011 route can be seen in figure 1.

The race is watched by approximately 15 million visitors (Bull and Lovell, 2010). Of these, 66% are men, and 34% women (www.meetingdeparis.com, accessed 16/03/11).

As the Tour de France does not charge it’s audience a fee, it relies on money from TV rights (e.g. France Télévisions and Eurosport), marketing rights, and local communities fees in order to “balance the race’s budget” (Arthur and Chadwick, 2008: 359). The 1930’s saw private companies starting to become interested in helping to finance the Tour, and so, as Arthur and Chadwick mention, the ‘Publicity Caravan’ was introduced. Key sponsors take part in this parade which allows them to advertise themselves by creating decorative vehicles and giving away free gifts during the 45 minute long procession, which has become a key spectacle of the event (www.letour.fr, accessed 16/03/11).

2. How the Event is Managed and Marketed.

The main focus in the marketing of the Tour de France is the whole idea of building an image of the event, and therefore of the destination itself (Smith, 2009a). It has been stated that

“The destination’s image will be affected by the image of the events that it hosts, and the particular effect will depend upon which dimensions of destination image are compatible with the event.” (Chalip et al, 2003: 228).

Smith (2009a) states how the uniqueness of the event and the strong ties to the country of France are extremely important to how it is marketed. The event is “nurtured by and tied to the host destination” (Chalip and Costa, 2005: 227). The tour is primarily marketed through its extensive media coverage. “Every year, the Tour is reported in ever increasing detail and accomplishment by the written press, radio, television and the Internet” (Dauncey and Hare, 2005). Bull and Lovell (2010) state that that over 2,965 hours if television programmes are broadcast in 184 different countries, and the event is followed by over 2,000 journalists.

The Tour de France is organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO). Bull and Lovell (2010) have stated that approximately 4,500 people are involved. The organisation involves activities such as working with the different sites that are staging the event, making decisions on the length and difficulty of each stage, and choosing teams. There are many different departments involved including the media, legal, commercial and logistics offices (Marchetti, 2010).

3. The Impacts of the Tour De France

The Tour de France has both positive and negative impacts for the host community, economy and environment. It is vital that the organisers of the Tour de France recognise that tourists have different needs from the local community.

There are economic impacts of hosting the Tour de France. As mentioned previously, there is no admission fee for tourists to watch the Tour de France, however, the area benefits from the money that the tourists spend while they are visiting the area.

The Tour de France receives massive press coverage. This is a positive impact for the areas and the host communities because the media coverage helps to promote the different areas as a tourist destination to potential visitors around the world. This is good for the local economy because more tourists coming into the area increases the G.D.P for France and other countries that are included in the route. For example,

“The total spend arising from TdF was £73 million in London, £15 million in Kent and a further £35 million of value generated by the extensive and favourable press coverage.” (Social Research Associates, 2007:14).

The Tour De France also creates jobs for the local people and is good for the local businesses in the area too. The host community can benefit from the developments and improvements that are made to the area in order to accommodate the visitors. It has been stated that

“The provision of additional services for visitors, such as better signing, street lighting, the provision and emptying of litter bins, street bins, street benches and facilities for the disabled, can also benefit the host community.” (Glasson, Godfrey & Goodey, 1997:38).

However, there are also negative impacts of the Tour de France. It can cause major disruption to the local resident’s lifestyles and routines. This is due to road closures and traffic congestion. An example of this is when Kent was part of the Tour de France route in 2007. The local residents were disrupted because

“150 miles of roads along the route throughout Kent were being closed and 1,300 junctions sealed off for at least 4 to 5 hours before the cyclists passed by....” (Bull & Lovell, 2010)

Mathieson and Wall, 2006 also recognise that the behaviour of tourists can have an impact on the host community. The Tour de France is a major sporting event that attracts a mass amount of tourists to an area at a specific time which unfortunately can bring anti-social behaviour, crime and drugs to the area. This makes the area feel unsafe for the local residents.

4. Success of the Event and its contribution to Cultural Tourism in France

The Tour de France, which has grown in recognition as a major European sporting event, has been extremely successful for regional tourism in France. Traditionally, tourists visiting the country would visit places such as Paris, the Côte d’Azur, Biarritz and other major tourist centres. What the Tour de France has achieved, through attracting visitors to the country as spectators of the event, is a contribution of visitors into more rural parts of the country. Smith (2009b, 233) states that ‘one of the most basic ways that peripheral places can benefit from major events is via their exposure to incidental or ‘spillover’ effects’. In other words, regional towns in France, and also in neighbouring participating countries, benefit from the race passing through the local area, in that tourists are drawn to the regional towns and villages, and participate in tourist activities whilst there. As a result, all service providers there, such as guest houses, restaurants and car hire companies, benefit from the visitor spend that takes place around the timing of the event.

This means that there is a boost to the local economy through tourists arriving and spending time there to view the race, whilst participating in tourist activities during their stay. The event has been successfully implemented in regional areas of France and neighbouring countries through the collaboration of the event organisers and local authorities and regional councils, such as Région Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur (www.regionpaca.fr, accessed 21/3/11), which have built components of the Tour de France into their tourism strategies. In order to enhance the visitor experience, France also “ran a campaign to persuade French people to display a warmer attitude towards tourists” (Kotler and Gertner, 2010: 48).

The Tour de France has also made a successful contribution to the cultural aspects of tourism in France, as the event itself is regarded as part of France’s sports culture. One could argue that the event itself is in fact a cultural tourism event. Other aspects of cultural tourism have been developed and grown around the hosting of visitors by towns and villages in regional France. Features of regional France’s tourism portfolio include activities such as food tourism, fishing, golf, religious tourism (such as Lourdes) and adventure tourism. Tourists visiting France to view the staging of the Tour de France are presented with the opportunity to take part in any of the other cultural tourism themes on offer. For example, a tourist viewing the race in Southern France could also take the opportunity to visit Lourdes whilst there.

5. Recommendations

France is known as the number one destination in terms of visitor arrivals. With this in mind, in the peak season of summer they are already experiencing a rise in tourist numbers. It could be recommended, therefore, that the Tour de France event could be held in a period of low season (e.g. Spring time) in order to increase visitor numbers at this time. This will also be an advantage to the cyclists as the weather will be slightly cooler. It could also be argued that the event is very long, and maybe cutting it down slightly would mean tourists are more likely to stay for the duration.

It could also be recommended that the organisers place greater emphasis on minimising the disruption of the host community when it comes to the rising numbers of people in the area and the closure of roads over the time of the event, as well as environmental degradation of the area.

6. How the event could be replicated in Ireland.

This report puts forward the argument that the Tour de France event could be replicated in Ireland. A Tour of Ireland already exists, however it only consists of three stages running between Dublin, Waterford, Cork and Killarney during the month of August (http://www.tourofireland.ie, accessed 28/03/11). It could be suggested that this could be extended to include the whole island of Ireland.

Part of the reasoning behind this suggestion is that, just like the Tour de France, the race could be brought through less known regions and places where tourists would not always have ventured to, such as the likes of places in Co. Armagh. This will greatly help in raising the profile of these areas and perhaps encourage repeat visits. The race could also be tied in with different festivals and activities in each place, allowing the local culture to be experienced and promoted through the media coverage of the event.

As stated previously the tour de France has held stages of the race in cities such as London, which has proved to be highly successful and contributed greatly to their economy. Holding the event in Ireland could have the same positive impacts for different cities and regions along the route. Ireland is very capable of hosting major sporting events, for example, last year the North-West 200 held in Coleraine, Portrush and Portstewart had 90,000 spectators during race week, contributing £4.5 million for local economy and 7.79 million for the whole N.I economy (www.northwest200.org, accessed 28/03/08).

Funding for the event could be sought from the likes of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, Tourism Ireland, the European Regional Development Fund, as well as local sporting bodies and local authorities.

Conclusion

This report has shown how the Tour de France has had a very positive impact in its host countries, bringing the economic benefits of cultural tourism to regional areas such as Région Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur. It is also important to recognise that such a large sporting event can have both positive and negative impacts on host communities and that it relies very heavily on media coverage and public sector funding. This needs to be taken into consideration if such an event is to be staged in Ireland. As we have seen, Ireland is capable of hosting large sporting events, and as such a Tour of Ireland could be a great way to help showcase Ireland as an amazing place to visit, filled with culture and heritage and amazing landscapes.