GOTLAND GRAND NATIONAL: 40 YEARS IN 2023!
40 YEARS OF FUN 1984 – 2023
INTEREST HAS NEVER BEEN GREATER!
The world’s largest enduro race is celebrating its 40th anniversary. The race will take place October 26–28, 2023, on Gotland.
Nearly 1,200 of the more than 3,000 participants have already registered.
Nordic Sport & Event entered the GGN arena in 2013 and has worked over the past ten years to develop GGN for the future.
In 2022, most major events in Sweden saw a decline of 15–25% in attendance. GGN saw an increase of nearly 10%.
– We’re incredibly pleased that we achieved such great participation numbers in 2022 (3,266 registered participants, of whom 2,980 started the race). This year’s goal is to set yet another record with 3,100 starters, and to do that, we’ll need a total of 3,400 registered participants. “We are absolutely convinced today that our strong numbers are due to the fact that we managed to hold GGN during the pandemic when it was at its worst in 2020, with just over 2,000 participants and more than 6,000 visitors traveling to GGN and Gotland,” says Conny Bohlin, CEO of Nordic Sport & Event.
“It was an incredible feeling for us to be able to stand there having successfully completed GGN without any participants contracting the virus as a result of the event. We may have been the only major event in all of Europe in 2022 that was able to take place. We’re reaping great benefits from that today, since our participants were never forced to take a 1–2-year hiatus,” Conny Bohlin continues.
Some of the highlights of the year
– The SVT Sport agreement for GGN 2023 is finalized. Once again this year, there will be over 5 hours of live TV coverage from GGN and Gotland.
The agreement between Nordic Sport & Event and SVT Sport was signed back in the spring of 2022 for the next two years.
– We’re continuing our focus on international live TV so that fans around the world can follow GGN.
Through a partnership with SVT Sport, Staylive, and Sportsground, we were able to offer TV viewers outside of Sweden the chance to watch GGN live for just 15 euros. This initiative will continue in 2023.
– #GGN300GIRLS – This year, we’re aiming to have 300 girls and women at the starting line.
Ahead of GGN 2021, we made a decision to work with some of our partners to get 300 girls and women on the starting line in a sport that is otherwise male-dominated. In 2022, we had a total of 205 participants on the starting line, compared to 160 the year before.
– 313,000 kronor in prize money.
In 2023, there will be a total of 313,000 kronor in prize money across the various elite divisions, with the women’s and men’s champions each winning 75,000 kronor, the runners-up 40,000 kronor, and the third-place finishers 15,000 kronor.
– GGN is focusing on the German market ahead of 2023.
Nordic Sport & Event is now working to establish GGN in the German market to attract even more international participants to GGN and Gotland. We’re doing this by hiring Gjermund Frostad, who is very well-known in the industry, and he’ll be visiting a number of competitions in Germany this spring. As a result, we’ll also be translating the website into German shortly.
– “We had great success in the German media when world No. 3 Larissa Papenmeier came to GGN 2022,” concludes Conny Bohlin.
Visit gotlandgrandnational.se
NORDIC SPORT & EVENTCELEBRATES ITS 10TH ANNIVERSARY!
On Saturday, April 15, 2023, we’ll be celebrating our 10th anniversary, and we were also named the best in Sweden in our industry in 2022.
Nordic Sport & Event was founded to develop GGN for the future. For a while, we had as many as eight events, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve had to cancel six of them.
“We decided to focus on the two largest ones, and since both are located on Gotland, that made the choice easier,” says Conny Bohlin, CEO of Nordic Sport & Event.
In 2023, the company will hold the following two competitions. In total, more than 10,000 travelers will visit Gotland, generating nearly 100 million kronor in revenue for the local business community through travel, lodging, dining, and shopping.
– Perhaps Sweden’s most fun and largest golf tournament, “Golfa Runt Gotland,” attracts 640 participants every May. In 2023, the tournament will be held May 7–11. It will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2024.
– The world’s largest enduro race, the Gotland Grand National, attracts over 3,000 participants from 15 countries every October. It will celebrate its 40th anniversary and take place October 26–28, 2023.
INDUSTRY WINNER
After 10 years in the industry, the company has been honored with the title INDUSTRY WINNER OF THE YEAR 2022. This means we were the best in Sweden in our segment.
Thank you to the participants, partners, suppliers, associations, the public, and the media who make this possible year after year.
Visit nordicsportevent.se
