More than 5,000 visitors followed the extreme world cycling competition in Veli Lošinj, the Mercedes-Benz UCI Mountain Biking World Cup, from April 19 to 22, 2018.
After many training sessions, a short but demanding and tough velodrome trail saw 215 top world competitors from more than 25 countries around the world for the Mercedes-Benz UCI Mountain Biking World Cup this weekend. Additionally, the image of Lošinj has been directly transmitted 105 television channels worldwide, reports HRTurizam on April 23, 2018.
The extreme cycling competition or the ‘Downhill’ race emerged from the spring training of Slovenian cyclists’ which took place in the organization of the Athletic Club of Lošinj and the mountain bike club Trbovlje. This weekend, out of the season, the race brought five thousand visitors to Mali Lošinj while providing free promotion of Croatia to countries all over the world. This is a fantastic way to link sports and tourism, just like the Tour of Croatia cycling race does which finished on Sunday.
“Veli Lošinj has become the center of the world over the last few days. I do not think we were fully aware of the opportunity we had when we became the host of such a prestigious international cycling race that resulted from the quality of two teams: MTB Trbovlje and the Lošinj Athletic Club. That love that started four years ago has led us to the present moments,” said the mayor of Mali Lošinj, Ana Kučić. “This is absolute confirmation that we are moving in the right direction since we have presented Lošinj as an island of vitality and health with a wealth of potential, especially in sports, to our visitors and the tourist and media market for many years. That is why we are intensively working on sports infrastructure, and this year we are preparing a master plan for cycling development on Lošinj. However, this is only a small segment of Lošinj’s offer because Lošinj has much to give its visitors,” added Ana Kučić.
Thanks to numerous journalists, the Red Bull Media House and other television companies that redeemed the rights of broadcasting, live broadcasting enabled the race to be transmitted to 105 countries, and more than a million and a half spectators watched the race live. Over the next week, more than 5 million people are expected to see this event through numerous media platforms (TV shows, reports, portals, social networks, etc.).
But this is just the beginning of the story, or at least it should be. Now that the island has attracted attention and focus while being promoted to countries around the world, Croatia must create similar content for this target group throughout the year. It is necessary to continue to develop cyclotourism and cycling competitions, as well as adventure tourism. If Croatia fails to capitalize on what is in front of them, they will have missed a great opportunity – and anything done as a one-off event has no long-term effect, no added value, and no profitability of the entire investment.
