Melbourne F1 News Australian Grand Prix

Finally saw some advertising and promo around town for the Australian Grand Prix. The Melbourne F1 race has been our number one traffic driver for months now and I was really concerned that there didn't seem to be a vibe out there. Powder Finger are the main entertainment act ( I will be at that one).
Bookings have been a bit slow since Christmas so we put a new short stay Australian Grand Prix Travel package in the market which is only 2 nights. We have never had short stays before with the Australian Grand Prix, it has always been 3 to 5 nights. Hope things will really kick on now the promotion has started. At Sportsnet Holidays we love the Aussie Grand Prix like the Australian Open its first of the season and always throws up a surprise or two.

Motor Sports are keeping me busy.

It been a busy time for Sportsnet Holidays favorite friends “petrol heads” of all kinds. The Bathurst 1000 has been a sold out success for us 2010. This year’s Malaysian MotoGP at Sepang was our best to date, then we sold out our Philip Island MotoGP offer and to top it off the good weather turned up and Casey burned up the track in his come back on home soil. This weekend was the Gold Coast V8 Supercars or is it the NitroGP or Surfers Paradise V8s or maybe it’s the Queensland A1GP or the Gold Coast Indy 300? Email me if you can work it out. I was offered a spot on a boat moored just off the start/finish line by my good mate John at CruiseawayHolidays.com.au but I didn’t take it (kids cricket match) as it turned out this weekend as far as thrills and spills goes was a cracker and I am kicking myself. Putting aside our flurry of last min Derby Day Packages and the 2010 Australian Open Tennis, we have Clipsal 500 out for next year, we have the Townsville 400 up which was a sell out for us last year and we have just made a big booking for the Hamilton 400 V8 in NZ today (AB take a bow). For those who like their open wheel racing and still feel let down by the whole A1GP farrago our Melbourne Grand Prix packages are getting a bit of traction so don’t spend too long thinking about it. While I can’t promise the Gold Coast grid girls or the Surfers Paradise beach front I reckon this year’s evening race format for the 2010 Australian Grand Prix will be a scorcher.

“Oh to be in England” (well Britain actually), it is not often that you will hear anyone who lives in the beautiful Melbourne saying, “oh to be in England” but if you are a sports fan and a traveller you can’t help looking enviously at the British summer of sport. They have Formula One drivers taking pole position and winning F1 meets. They have had a compelling Wimbledon Tennis Tournament with their own man Andy Murray nearly going the distance. They have the Ashes which is shaping up to be a sensational final match with plenty of grudge and controversy,that’s the way we like it. The British Open Championship Golf has been on and the course looks like it has been cut out of picture book, sophisticated magnificent & lush. As if that is not all their man Cavendish has been tearing up the sprints in the Tour De France and grabbing the headlines. Even on the bikes the three cylinder Triumph is ripping it up on the track. To make matters worse we Aussies have gone down to the Kiwis in the Bledislow Cup when even the UK Lions have managed a few wins. If you are still up for a bit of self torture the EPL is on this weekend.

So what is the good news? Summers is just around the corner and I live in Melbourne and let me tell you it does not get any better than this in a single city of just over 3 million! We have: the Phillip Island Moto GP, the Australian Masters Golf in Melbourne the Tour Down Under with Lance Armstrong and a host of Aussies cyclists, The Australian Open and the soon to be announced dates for the Australian Grand Prix. If I had a friend called Willis I’d be tempted to say, “That’s what I am talking about!”

Summer sports travel

Sunburn at the Horse Racing this past week has been a gentle reminder that summer is coming. For the sports traveller that means motor sport and tennis. What about cricket I hear you say? Well the Ashes are being staged in England this time round so that means pride of place on the Australian sporting calendar goes to The Australian Open (on the turf) to The Australian Grand Prix (on the track).

At Sportsnet Holidays, ticket & hotel packages to both Tennis Australia’s 2009 Australian Open and the Melbourne F1 GP have been hot off the blocks this year with no sign that the economy is stopping sports fans from booking sports packages.

Although both events are in Melbourne and sports tour packages have been released for a while now, it should be remembered that for the tennis and motor sports fans there are lots of other events going on across the country.

Tennis travel to Adelaide, Perth and Sydney are as popular as ever. The Adelaide international, this year is called the World Tennis Challenge and is a great opportunity to take in a few stars, a few premium wine districts and a gourmet food region or two. If that’s not your style, try the beach at Glenelg or Victor Harbour.

Perth’s Hopman Cup is the slow burner of Tennis Travel, always popular and always excellent value. Hopman attracts great names and is an excellent opportunity to see Perth, take a dip in the Indian Ocean at Scarborough Beach, wander through Freemantle or escape the heat on Rottnest Island. For those with more time and a car there exist the delights of Margaret River and the tall timbers of the Jarra forests.

Although it is off topic, if you can’t make Perth for the tennis, the 2009 Johnny Walker Golf Classic is also in Perth and has a host of big names have signed up to attend.

For those of us who like our sport with lashings of noise and loads of torque, then aside from the Australian F1 GP there is the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide. This is a massively successful event that has maintained its premier position among V8 Supercar sports fans as the other must see event after The Bathurst 1000. Another big V8 Supercar event worth travelling to in the near future includes The Townsville 400 where you can stay on Magnetic Island and take the ferry to the track every day - not so much “surf and turf” but more beach and bitumen. Don’t forget Hidden Valley V8 Supercars in Darwin which in 2009 comes with a Ford boat versus Holden boat fishing trip option. While the 2009 Darwin V8 with fishing trip is my choice I reckon the other half in my life is firmly locked into the Townsville 400 with Magnetic Island option…and my guess is she will not be taking the ferry to the track every day.

We’ve learned from all the sunburn so like last year, our packages will again include a hat and small tube of sun block in our tennis and grand prix tour packages.

If the dollar picks up I might review the great options for the 2009 northern hemisphere summer with Masters Golf, The Ashes Series, Wimbledon, The French Open and the Tour De France all being released between now and Christmas (and I didn’t say that word, it wasn’t me).

Booking a sports holiday

It has struck me recently that it is not as easy as it seems to book a sports holiday.

Firstly there is a lot on offer including: sports travel, sports tours, sports holiday, sports vacations and so on.

Secondly, I guess the key thing that separates sports travelers or travellers if you are in the US or have your computer settings on US English. For us there is a sports event or activity that is the lynch pin around which the whole trip sits. From then on in it gets kind of messy as everyone is after something different and no two travelers seem to want the same thing.

Thirdly there are a lot of sites to choose from and being able to answer, “what term do I start putting into the internet to search is a good start? "

Whatever sports travel agent website site you come up with the most important thing is to check it has a real street address and phone number and if you can’t find it on Google Earth or another mapping site don’t go putting any money into that website payment gateway.

For my money I think buying a package that is built around official tickets and a hotel is the key to getting what you want. From this point in you can build your trip around this cornerstone because every event is different and everyone has a different budget and that is where some websites get it wrong.

If you are going all the way to Malaysia to watch the Sepang F1 Grand Prix you are probably going to take in a bit more of Malaysia or South East Asia than just the race event, so you are going to need a full service travel agent, but you may want to get your sports holiday from one guy and the rest of your travel through your regular agent. If you are working in Singapore, Jakarta or Hong Kong you could hop over to Kuala Lumpur and head down to Sepang Formula 1 GP for the a few days so you are going to make different arrangements and don’t want to be locked by the package. It is the same rules for the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, if you are booking a Melbourne GP F1 tour then Australia is a long way away and Melbourne is far from Sydney so keep the grand prix travel package simple so I can be flexible with how I get there and how long I stay.

So I reckon they should keep sports travel packages simple, just make it a minimum of: tickets & a hotel, anything extra is great, offer a range of hotels because fans come is all budget sizes and TICKET or GRAND UPGRADES are a must please. If you have been to an event before or you know your sport then you probably know where you want to be at the stadium or at the track and if it is a once in a life time experience you are probably going to spend up big, so keep those sports holiday package options flexible.