Traveling to a triathlon

I've been nominated to the board for the Na Wahine Festival here on Oahu. It's a women's only festival with many short events. Sprint Tri, Super Sprint Tri, Spash-n-dash, Swim-n-spin, etc. Open water ocean swim in 82 degree water, flat 5k run and 12 mile bike around Diamond Head. All starting right in Waikiki.

Would you travel to something like this?

If you wanted to, where would you begin your search for the event? I'm trying to figure out where to advertise on the mainland and where people would look. (Event was last weekend so we have plenty of time for planning)

Personally, I doubt I would travel to a triathlon smaller than a half ironman. But if I happened to be vacationing at a place and saw that there was a sprint tri or a splash and dash event, I'd look into it. However, if I don't have all my bike gear with me, I'm not sure I'd want to rent a bike, helmet, shoes (?) the whole deal. Would be pretty costly for such a short race.

So they have the splash and dash. Which I'd only do if I didn't need a wet suit. And you sure as heck don't here in Hawaii. And yeah, I usually travel with my goggles/swim and running stuff. :roll eyes:

Thoughts?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

I use trifind.com to find events. Your event is listed there.

When we're traveling I usually look to see if there is something interesting that happens to fall during my vacation plans. It hasn't worked out yet, but I keep looking.

Veronica

Thanks Veronica. The Na Wahine is listed there already and I don't think it brings in too many folks. ;-(

Hi, hulagirl,

Murienn just gave you a great rundown of website marketing. Well done, M!

I look for races in Competitor magazine. I'm not sure if it's local only, though. I know it's regional for Southern California, but because so many SoCal people are also attached to Hawaii (huge Hawaiian population here, and married-to-Hawaiians), I think it might be a good place to advertise, too, or at least get your race listed.

What about partnering with Hawaiian Air to offer a race fare to include transporting a bike case? I see on the site that Hilton Hawaiian Village offers a discounted nightly rate already. I like that hotel. I'd stay there again, easy.

I travel with my goggles and gear, too, so the Splash and Dash part would appeal to me, assuming I couldn't get my bike there, but I see your point about not traveling just for that. What about partnering with one of the bike rental companies to offer those packages, too?

If you make it easy for me to just sign up and it's all arranged - hotel, bike rental, shuttle to and from the race start, food the day of - I'd be much more inclined to participate, even if it's expensive to get there.

DH and I just took DD over to Oahu for a Kamehameha School Summer Camp for her second year of this Hawaiian-immersion program for kids of Hawaiian descent. The camp was $120, but it cost about $5,000 to get us all over there and him and me in a hotel for the week, so yes, people will travel for stuff.

If your tri had been going on that same week, I would have done it, even on the spur of the moment, and I would probably have rented a bike, too.

How many women currently participate in this tri? You know, looking at the site, I don't see a single thing about the tri. I see a lot about the canoe race. Now that I'm looking at it in detail, I don't think this site is for your tri at all.

What's the link to your Na Wahine Festival?

Roxy

See if you can make contact with the Outdoor Recreation/MWR folks on the local bases on Oahu. Military members have connections all over the world and tend to participate in these events more than your average Joe. They also get lots of visitors when they're stationed in Hawaii!
Also consider making a Facebook page--If you can get folks "Liking" your event on Facebook, you'd be amazed at the results. There's a big race coming up here in the Tampa area this winter called the Tough Mudder and Facebook has done amazing things for that race's popularity.
Good luck!

One thing that might help "encourage" people (once they got to you) to think of you as a pro-travel race would be providing travel information - where to stay, what airport to fly into, that kind of thing. If I'm looking at traveling races, I usually look for recommended hotels, any kind of partnerships, that sort of thing, that tells me they are interested in more than locals.

Other than that, a great website can go a long way, then it might take some time to build a network. I like the military suggestion, networks like that can help spread the word.

Good luck!!