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Press Release
14 November 2008
Visiting media to follow athletes in Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge
National and international media attention will be on Tasmania next week with the start of the 2008 Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge.
A stellar field of competitors will soon be descending on Tasmania, led by Australian Formula One driver Mark Webber.
They include Dancing with the Stars’ Daniel McPherson, six-time Australian paralympian Michael Milton, and North Melbourne Football Club legends Glenn Archer and Leigh Colbert.
The Minister for Tourism, Michelle O’Byrne, today acknowledged the intense media attention the Challenge attracts.
“Annual media coverage for the 2008 Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge is expected to be worth more than $8 million," Ms O'Byrne said.
“Tourism Tasmania’s Visiting Journalist Program (VJP) will play an integral role in this by supporting key national and international journalists to cover the event.
“They include freelance travel writers for a range of Australian, UK, US and New Zealand magazines and newspapers, a reporter from Inside Sport magazine, a reporter for the UK Times and a travel writer from Germany.
“Tourism Tasmania’s media liaison experts have consulted closely with the journalists to tailor itineraries that will suit their interests, as well as the requirements of their publication.
“In the case of the 2008 Mark Webber Pure Tasmania Challenge, some visiting journalists have actually chosen to compete in the Challenge."
They include Daniel Hoy and Matt Kitchen from the Herald Sun, Gareth Cherrimen from Text Pacific Publishers, and freelance travel writer Matt Clayton.
“This will undoubtedly give them a unique insight into not only the event, but the spectacular natural locations across Tasmania that are rapidly building this State’s reputation as an international island of adventure,” Ms O’Byrne said.
Other journalists will track the Challenge from the sidelines as it moves across the State.
Ms O’Byrne said “I’m confident the accounts of their Tasmanian experiences and the ‘Challenge’ itself will motivate their readership to discover Tasmania for themselves."
The Tasmanian public are invited to join the adventure and share in this unique opportunity to witness media personalities, top-level athletes and adventure-racing’s international elite competing in spectacular locations across the State.
“Competitors will kayak, trek and ride their way through some of Tasmania’s most beautiful and remote wilderness areas, and they are keen for members of the public to support them at some of the more accessible sidelines,”Ms O’Byrne said .
“This will be Tasmania’s opportunity to support an event that is helping our State to take pole position in the race to attract the world’s adventure-tourists”.
The 2008 Challenge runs statewide from Wednesday 19 – Sunday 23 November.
Key locations where the public can view the Challenge are:
Wednesday 19 November - Dove Lake & Cradle Mountain - 8am – 12noon
Friday 21 November - Country Club Tasmania Launceston - 8am – 11am
Saturday 22 November - Port Arthur Historic Site - 8am – 3pm
Sunday 23 November - Salamanca Place, Hobart - 2pm – 5pm
www.markwebberchallenge.com.au
Further information: Sam Adams: 0488 604 09