2009 Australian Grand Prix will be a winner.

The first Grand Prix event of 2009 is now within sight and there is lots of concern about how the Global Financial crisis will affect the Aussie Grand Prix event.
If the Australian Open Tennis is anything to go by then it will go off. The tennis was packed, Melbourne was really humming and despite 40C plus days the stars really turned it on.
We had our biggest year for the tennis ever and even ended up with Wimbledon and French Open bookings as a result of all the online enquires so I think the Grand Prix will be a scorcher.
Why will it work ? The tennis has helped to focus the publics’ sporting eye on Melbourne which always helps. The Australian Formula One Grand Prix is the first race of the year so for petrol heads like us there are new cars, new teams, new gear for the fans and plenty of low down on who is doing what, where and with whom. The race has had a bit of a makeover after being re-secured for Melbourne which will give it a lift. The Albert Park Grand Prix course is a classic with a good balance between a street circuit like the Monaco GP and a track like the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. The prepping of the track kicks off this month which really builds the buzz. Moving the Melbourne F1 to the end of March will make it less likely to be really hot and with Easter around the corner numbers should be up were as in previous years it had been hard on the heels of the tennis and the AFL pre-season competition and in life, as in sport, timing is everything. There are some more concrete indicators that this year it will go well for Grand Prix travel and these are; we have had more advance bookings this year than in other years and the enquires are there even before the big guns have started with all the PR and marketing bizzo. So I think the pessimists be dammed, the 2009 Australian Grand Prix should get the numbers, maybe not the corporate clients but so what, it’s the fans, the teams and the drivers that make an event not how many accountants turn up. With so many international sporting events in Europe and the America’s it’s a great time of year for us, after the Melbourne Grand Prix it is into Asia with the 3 S’s, Sepang (Malaysian Grand Prix), the Singapore F1 and Shanghai and with only a 2 hour time difference meaning we can watch it live without getting up a 4am, so bring on the 2009 GP season.

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.