The increasing global popularity for the Tour de France is also being mirrored in the rise of sponsorship deals. This year is the first time in the Tour’s history that five brands are included within the highest sponsorship tier, including Skoda, LCL, Carrefour, Krys and Vittel. As well the sponsors that are upgrading their partner status with the event, the Tour is also attracting new int'l sponsors, such as South African IT firm Dimension Data, having signed a five-year deal in March this year to become the Tour’s official technology partner. Repucom Exec VP Market Research Mike Wragg said, "These figures show that whilst the Tour de France is growing in appeal globally, it remains a much loved event in its more traditional heartlands of central and southern Europe. The rise in fan interest internationally, especially in markets such as the UAE, provides some crucial clues as to potential future investors into the Tour and the sport more generally. Investment in sport in the UAE and across the region has boomed in the last five years and we’re now seeing this reflected in the growth of fan bases. The knock on effect, as we have seen with European football for example, is that events like the Tour de France could now become more appealing to sponsors from Middle East markets."
GROWING INTEREST: As the 2015 Tour de France enters its final stages this week, Repucom released figures showing the growing fan base of the event.
Between the '12-15 races, int'l interest has in some cases significantly grown, with the largest shifts being seen in countries such as the U.S. (4%), Italy (8%) and the UAE (12%).
Interest in Italy in the Tour (30%) now joins France (32%), the Netherlands (33%) and Spain (38%) as those markets which have at least 30% of the domestic population who say they are interested in the event. Of the eleven markets tested, int'l interest in the Tour de France has jumped to 23%, up from 20% in '12.
Fan interest in France remains stable, although the results show that national interest has dropped only very slightly in the last three years by one percentage point. One other drop in domestic fan bases comes from the Netherlands, where in '12 38% of the population were interested in the Tour, compared to 33% today (Repucom).
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| Source: REPUCOM |
