More grandstand tickets have been sold for this year’s Isle of Man TT, with four weeks still to go to the start of the event, than were sold by the end of race week in 2012.

The recently introduced remote grandstands at the Waggon and Horses, Creg-ny-Baa and Ballacrye as well as a viewing area at Rhencullen have also proved popular this year.

Bumper demand for accommodation has guaranteed a return for the Snoozebox temporary accommodation in Noble’s Park which was used for the first time last year. Double the number of units is to be installed there this year.

Though Homestay registrations are slightly down, this is thought to be caused by people rebooking direct rather than going through the official Homestay scheme.

New registrations are up. Visitor numbers are up and some accommodation providers are actually reporting that they are already sold out for 2014!

Meanwhile other preparations are now well under way with resurfacing going on in various parts of the course including Braddan and Bedstead, to ensure the road is fit for racing on. Early work putting out bales and reticulated fencing around the course was hampered when the late snow restricted acces to many areas, including the mountain, but this is now well under way.

Work is also being completed at the TT grandstand which is currently shrouded in scaffolding for maintenance work which includes replacing windows.

The stallholders’ area at the back is also fenced off while work is carried out on the drainage system and improvements made to the the beer tent site, including levelling of the ground.

Despite provision of 200 extra corporate hospitality places this year - bringing the total to 500 - both Wednesday and Friday are now sold out.

Latest Steam Packet passenger figures are not yet available but the most recent figures were up on the same period the previous year.



John Turner
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