St Helena : Festival of Running a Huge Success
Submitted by Saint Helena Herald (Juanita Brock) 15.09.2005 (Article Archived on 29.09.2005)
Pamela Young tells Garron Yon about this year's successful festival.
Festival of Running A Huge Success
The third Festival of Running has proven to be a success with the largest number of runners visiting the Island ever.
Director of Tourism, Pamela Young, said that for the first time, there were participants from Germany, the United Kingdom, Namibia and Swaziland as well as from South Africa. Some have been to the Island before, and a number have said that they would love to come back again.
While they were on the Island, the runners stayed in self catering accommodation used hire drive cars and they also participated in activities; including scenic tours, pub crawls, and scuba diving.
In commenting on the increase in the number of visitors, Pamela said the marketing in South Africa obviously worked. She added: “It has convinced us that events of this kind are important for tourism as they attract visitors we would not normally have. The more events we can get off the ground, the better.” Next in the pipeline is a Festival of Walking and this will go towards establishing a Calendar of Events for St Helena.
Just after the festival, the Tourist Office received sixteen enquiries from persons who are interested in coming to the Island, and Pamela feels that this could be attributed to the publicity that was generated about the Island as a result of the festival. A Travel Agent in the West Midlands has also made enquiries about holidays on St Helena on behalf of their clients.
The Tourist Office dealt with a number of enquiries from the runners, although Pamela said that the event would not have been such a success if it had not been for the work of the many volunteers who organised all of the runs.
Public Relations/Information Office
Office of the Chief Secretary
14 September 2005
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