Rotorua World Mountain Bike Champs – Taking an Event into the Community
Beyond the event – what has come out of it?
Impacts of the WMBC and the Council’s policy of continuing to support similar events and recreational activities have been:
- Increased activity and forest usage:
- more local people in the community out using the walking/mountain bike tracks. Forest usage survey shows increases in forest usage
- increase in the number of tracks from 32 to 45 in response to demand.
- More clubs and comps:
- revenue from the champs was donated to the mountain bike club, which has expanded from roughly 200 to 450 members. The donation to the club has become seed money for a scholarship fund to provide assistance to aspiring local mountain bikers
- Rotorua Mountain Bike Club is hosting national cup races as well as assisting with Kids Jams bike ride and SPARC Get to Go Challenges
- through both hosting events and applying to charitable trusts, the club has been able to invest over $115,000 in trail construction and maintenance, consistently improving the quality of the mountain bike playground
- an increase in private mountain bike events – for example the three-day bike event during the Easter weekend of 2007 and 2008, The Odyssey
- the WMBC has set a precedent. Events can now more easily be introduced on an international scale. Mountain bike events are now leveraged to help bring other cycle events to Rotorua such as spring road racing, mountain biking cross country and cycle cross.
- Better publicity and economic growth for Rotorua:
- a new website www.riderotorua.com has updates on trails and events
- a specific mountain biking brochure for Rotorua has been developed, which advertises Ride Rotorua and is aimed at domestic tourism
- there are more mountain bike shops in town – this has increased from two shops to five
- continuing visitors around events.
- RDC continued involvement:
- involvement from RDC in supporting sponsorship, publicity, and logistical management of events has expanded
- forest management involvement in events has expanded through providing information or support to event organisers and management about what routes are safe etc.
- New partners:
- stronger relationships have been developed with independent events organisations and with Bike NZ/Bike NZ Rotorua.
- Building event and people capability:
- RDC’s internal events process evolved during and after the WMBC. The big learning was around the value of investing in community events.
The current Events Manager at RDC, Emily Pritchard, says the focus for Council is now to look 2-3 years ahead, trying to build on Rotorua’s reputation as a world-class mountain biking venue. As part of this strategy, Council is working with local groups to help bring their bids up to international standard.
Updated | 27 Jun 2008.
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