My wife Vivien and I were in Paris for the Paris Marathon. Viv ran it, I supplied the logistics and moral support.

Registration for the Marathon was at the Expo Centre near Versailles in the south of Paris. Attached to the registration centre was a huge exhibition with traders selling running gear etc and.... a whole area given over to the reps and exhibitors

for the various marathons, half-marathons and cross-country trailing events being held in Europe, Canada, North Africa and the USA during 2011. And they were doing a roaring trade, drafting in entrants left, right and centre. It was manic! Even representatives from the Johannesburg Marathon and Japan were there!

Some of these exhibitors were supported by their affiliated athletics and national sports ministries, others were being supported by their national tourism agencies. It certainly was part of the exhibition that was doing a roaring trade.

Whether or not you chose to enter, it was clear from just wandering around the exhibition that Marathons, Half-Marathons and cross-country trailing is very, very big business in the Northern Hemisphere.

I was talking to the reps from the Naples marathon (which was truly one of the most beautiful of all the marathons on offer) and she told me that the community was set to generate millions of Euro's from the event and the knock effect for tourism in an area that was not so long ago knocked about by earthquakes was priceless. Others, like the people from San Sebastian in Spain said the same.

I think there is some mileage here for the organisers of the 2012 Eclipse Marathon, the federal and state tourism departments to latch upon and get the Eclipse Marathon promoted in a big fashion in the Northern Hemisphere.

I cannot imagine what the actual gross income that could be made by such a unique event within Australia alone, but I reckon that if you could get the event promoted say at the Paris Marathon in 2012 and maybe the other bigger marathons and sports events and the London Olympics for instance, the draw from overseas competitors and visitors to the airlines coming in to

Cairns and Brisbane, the hotels and accommodation suppliers and the service industries in and around Port Douglas, Cairns, Mossman and alike would be out-of-this-world.

This is an opportunity the tourism marketeers cannot or should not miss out upon. Careful investment in a promotional campaign and good planning could win the region millions of bucks.

How you go about it is something beyond a guy who repairs electronic gear for a living, but I am sure there are wise and clever people from www.tourismportdouglas.com.au, Queensland's Tourist Board and elsewhere in the state or federal government who would know?

Perhaps a call to the the marketing people of the Paris Marathon would be a good start.... I don't know? But for such a unique and once in a lifetime natural phenomena, the Eclipse Marathon 2012 would be a mega winner and appeal to the runners and adventurers of Europe and North America.

Viv and I will be there for sure!

All the best.

With luck, I'm going to be in Port Douglas in August. I can't wait!!!!

Gazza Tee, UK.