The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has opened bids for the new and improved 2017 ITTF World Tour.
The revamped and restructured ITTF World Tour will have a new look and image in 2017 to make the tour a much more attractive proposition to countries and cities to promote themselves globally through table tennis.
ITTF’s President Thomas WEIKERT stated: “The ITTF World Tour has been a very valuable property since its inception in 1996. However, the ITTF believed it was time to shake up the World Tour to make it more commercially viable for potential hosts, and to increase the overall economic situation of the tour. We believe the changes implemented will take the already successful ITTF World Tour to the next level.”
There are 12 ITTF World Tour events available for bidding in 2017, which are split into two tiers. Six ITTF World Tour Platinum events, which is the new top tier of the World Tour, and six regular ITTF World Tour events.
The six ITTF World Tour Platinum events will have higher prize money, and be of a higher level event, which will ensure the world’s best players’ attendance, resulting in more international exposure for the hosts.
The current third tier of the ITTF World Tour, the ITTF World Tour Challenge series will be removed from the ITTF World Tour for 2017 and form a new property called the ITTF Challenge Series, which will be the development tour of the ITTF.
The ITTF World Tour has consistently been a great avenue for countries and cities to gain global reach, promotion and recognition as the below figures portray:
- 20 TV broadcasters in 80 countries with a potential reach of over 550 million;
- 405 hours of the World Tour broadcasted, including 62.5 hours on China’s national broadcaster CCTV, reaching 157 million people in total;
- US$2.2 million in TV media value for the city of Berlin at the 2016 ITTF World Tour German Open;
- 16 million video views of 2015 ITTF World Tour online videos;
- Connection to ITTF’s 1.3 million social media fans;
- 21% of the global population is interested in Table Tennis.
To become a part of the world’s biggest table tennis tour, which is only going to get bigger, go toITTFWorldTour.com to find out more information and submit your bid.
For more information on the ITTF Challenge Series, go to ITTFChallengeSeries.com.
Bids close 31 May 2016, so be quick not to miss out!
