Vol. 445 No. 6
66 Mr. Timmins asked the Minister for Tourism and Trade if he will give details of his Department's sponsorship arrangement with Eddie Jordan's Grand Prix Team; and the expected benefit for Irish tourism; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [127/94]
In this year's budget, the Government made an additional £5 million available to the Minister for Tourism and Trade for tourism promotion and development. This sum was designed to facilitate the putting in place of a number of new strategies to boost tourism to Ireland. One of these strategies, for which I have set aside £1.25 million, is to associate Ireland's many leading sporting and artistic performers with tourism marketing and to seek to have international sporting finals take place in Ireland.
The agreement with Jordan Grand Prix Ltd. falls into this category and covers the 1994 FIA World Formula One Championship. Under the terms of the agreement, which is the subject of a formal contract between Jordan Grand Prix Ltd. and Bord Fáilte, the Jordan drivers, cars and other equipment will carry the "Discover Ireland" or "Ireland" insignia for a fee of £400,000.
The potential promotional impact of this arrangement is enormous. The World Formula One Championship is contested over 16 events, 15 countries, on four continents. The live television audience for each race is 480 million in more than 100 countries and each Grand Prix attracts an average 200,000 spectators for the duration of the event. The arrangement with Jordan represents a massive media opportunity to raise awareness of Ireland, both generally, and as an exciting and interesting tourist destination, to an enormous global audience, of a scale much larger than we could possibly hope to reach through conventional promotional spends.
