dakar 2012: the figures

just been checking in to see who's got a place in dakar 2013 and looked at the stats on this year's event. from a sponsorship point of view, this is starting to look very good for the amateurs, although we still need much more tv coverage in the uk:

4.5 million spectators
1,200 hours of TV broadcasts
1 billion viewers
271 million dollars of economic impact

Whilst the popular success of the Dakar in Argentina and Chile was once again confirmed, the reception encountered for the first time in Peru lived up to the expectations of the organisers and the country itself. According to a survey of the Peruvian public, 97% of people questioned said they were proud their country was hosting the Dakar.

Argentina: 1.7 million spectators

Chile: 1.2 million spectators

Peru: 1.5 million spectators

“The Dakar has been the biggest tourist promotion initiative in Argentina’s history,” according to Enrique Meyer, Argentinean Secretary of State for Tourism, interviewed during the first edition of the Dakar in South America in 2009.

• The direct and indirect impact of the rally in the three countries has been estimated at 271 million dollars.
• A public awareness survey conducted on representative samples of the populations in 9 countries (France, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, China, USA, and Japan) confirmed the increase in reputation and awareness provided by the Dakar. As a result, 730 million people declared that they discovered the host countries thanks to the Dakar, and 67% of them said they would like to visit these countries one day.

• Via 70 broadcasters, 190 countries received images from the rally, with a total coverage of 1,200 hours for one billion viewers.
• Taking account of the broadcast times of these programmes and the news reports, the audience of the various channels as well as the rates charged by their advertising departments, the worth of this exposure has been evaluated at 386 million dollars.
• On the race, 55 international, national or regional channels sent crews to produce their own images in addition to the programmes produced daily by the organisers.

• The web site attracted 4.3 million web users, i.e. an increase of 43% on the figures for 2011. In the video section, 5 million clips were viewed during the race, i.e. twice as many as in 2011.
• In addition to the content available on dakar.com, the official Facebook page brought together a community of 470,000 fans, whilst 40,000 people subscribed to follow the Dakar on Twitter.