Volvo Ocean Race has appointed leading travel management and events business, ATPI Sports Events, as its global official hospitality agency for the 2017-18 edition.
Starting in Alicante, Spain in October 2017, the race will visit 11 cities around the world, including Lisbon (Portugal), Cape Town (South Africa), Hong Kong, Guangzhou (China) and Auckland (New Zealand). It will then travel to Itajaí (Brazil), Newport (USA), Cardiff (Wales) and Gothenburg (Sweden) before finishing at The Hague (The Netherlands) in July 2018.
As the Race’s official hospitality agency, ATPI Sports Events - part of the ATPI Group - will be responsible for the development, execution and sales of a number of selected hospitality experiences around the race stopovers. In addition, bolt-on services including flights and local transport can be arranged, either separately or added to hospitality packages, and bespoke programmes for those clients who wish to combine the Volvo Ocean Race experience with a sales conference, staff event or board meeting, can also be arranged.
ATPI Sports Events has over ten years of experience in managing hospitality packages in sailing events, including working as the global travel and hospitality partner for competing teams during the 2005-06 and 2014-15 editions of the Volvo Ocean Race. In the wider sports arena, ATPI Sports Events was also involved in managing logistics at the 2016 Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games, 2015 Rugby World Cup and the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Helen van Berkel, Director, ATPI Sports & Corporate Events said:
“We are proud to be awarded this prestigious role. The Volvo Ocean Race is one of the most prestigious events in the sailing calendar. We are committed to working as partners alongside the Volvo Ocean Race team and our clients to deliver hospitality that offers unforgettable experiences, right in the heart of the action.”
Karin Bäcklund, Commercial Director of Volvo Ocean Race added:
“With ATPI Sports Events we have found a highly qualified and specialised hospitality agency. Their experience in managing large hospitality programmes around global sports events and dealing with the dynamic and unpredictable nature of sailing races, will be of tremendous value for the overall quality of our offering to race stakeholders and corporations.’
About ATPI
The ATPI Group has a network of over 100 offices worldwide and has successful operations for corporate travel, specialist services for shipping, energy, and offshore industries, sports, and corporate event management. The company is at the forefront of travel technology development including online booking, system integration, and data analytics.
About Volvo Ocean Race
The Volvo Ocean Race is the world’s longest professional sporting event and leading offshore sailing competition. It is well established as one of the big three global sailing events in the world, along with the America’s Cup and the Olympic Games. The 2017-18 edition will be the 13th edition. The prize - the magnificent Volvo Ocean Race trophy - symbolises the glory of winning what is still one of the most extreme challenges in the world of sport. In 1998, Volvo became the new owner of the race and renamed in the Volvo Ocean Race. The Volvo Ocean Race moved from England in 2010 and has been based in Alicante, Spain since then. The waterfront Race Headquarters contains the state-of-the-art Race Control, from where the boats are tracked continuously around the world using sophisticated maritime technology and satellite communications.
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