Clipper Race signs multi-million dollar Chinese deal

China’s ‘Sailing City’ Qingdao has today signed an ‘historic’ agreement to continue as a Host Port and Team Partner of the biennial Clipper Round the World Yacht Race to the end of 2020, a unique event for non-professional sailors in the biggest ocean race around the planet. 

The Clipper Race is organised by UK based Clipper Ventures, which has just celebrated the 20th anniversary of its highly successful ocean adventure for every-day people created with British yachting legend Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. It is now also a powerful platform for the global promotion of destination, business and consumer brands. 

CEO of Clipper, William Ward has welcomed the agreement which he signed at an official ceremony in Qingdao. He said: “We have grown the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race over the last 20 years since it was established in 1996 to become a unique and unequalled platform for our partners in building global trade and tourism. Qingdao has been an important part of our journey and I am very pleased to see how they have benefitted in so many ways.

“Their decision to extend the partnership to 2020 clearly demonstrates their recognition of how important our relationship has become for the local economy as well as the successful development of the city as China’s Sailing City. We look forward to building on that success and generating an even greater return on investment in the years to come.”

The value of the Qingdao’s partnership in the event since 2005 is estimated to have generated a generous return on investment for the major port city and China worth billions of RMB in terms of global media value, trade and tourism.

On behalf of Qingdao, the Vice Mayor of the Qingdao Municipal Government and Vice President of the Qingdao Major International Sailing Events (Festivals) Organising Committee, Madam Luan Xin said: “Through our Team Partnership with a Qingdao yacht entry, the city brand and profile has been promoted worldwide and the fast growth of China’s Sailing City has been witnessed.

“Qingdao has had the fortune to be a Host Port and Team Partner over six consecutive editions of the Clipper Race. Now we have extended the partnership to an historic eight consecutive races. We look forward to further and long-lasting cooperation over the next four years.”

Qingdao first sponsored the Clipper Race in 2005 and used the event as a focal point for building its credentials to host the sailing events of the Beijing 2008 Olympics and a powerful legacy, not only as China’s but also Asia’s leading location for international sailing events, in addition to developing Qingdao as a powerful maritime city with a strong ‘blue’ marine economy and creating a leisure sport cluster along the route of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

The Qingdao branded yacht has represented the city and China on the race route around the world and has been used as a platform for a comprehensive promotion of China’s ‘Sailing City’ in major ports of call around the world such as London, UK; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Cape Town, South Africa; Sydney, Australia; Seattle and New York, USA.

The Clipper Race has also boosted the development of the boat-building industry in Qingdao by commissioning its third generation of twelve identical 70-foot yachts with a local shipyard. They have proved to be robust and reliable in tackling the challenging conditions encountered on the world’s biggest ocean race, from big seas to strong winds, since their introduction and debut in 2013.

In addition the event has built sailing skills with 16 Chinese crew representing Qingdao selected on each race to build experience of ocean racing. The first Chinese sailor to join the Clipper Race on board the Qingdao yacht in the 2005-06 went on to become the first Chinese person to sail solo non-stop around the world; in the Clipper 2013-14 Race a crew member aboard the Qingdao yacht became the first Chinese woman to sail around the world.

The value of the event to Qingdao and China over the last twelve years runs into billions of RMB in global media exposure, trade deals and tourism. In the Clipper 2015-16 Race just completed Qingdao’s participation as a Team Partner and Host Port was mentioned in over 5000 news items and episodes of the official international television series, reaching a unique global audience base of more than a billion people, generating over three billion opportunities to see coverage. The publicity value alone is estimated to be worth in excess of 1.4 billion RMB. 

The size, scale and global profile of the Clipper Race has grown enormously during its partnership with Qingdao and provides a huge return on investment. Today’s agreement extends Qingdao’s participation in the Clipper Race to eight editions of the race, the longest consecutive partnership in the history of the event spanning 16 years from 2005 to 2020. 

The next edition of the Clipper Race will leave the UK in late August 2017 and reach Qingdao in March 2018.

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