Isle of Man TT: Minister defends festival schedule changes

Tens of thousands of fans attend the TT festival each year

The Manx enterprise minister has defended plans to change the day of the Senior TT race from next year.

Regarding the switch from Friday to Saturday, Lawrie Hooper was criticised in the House of Keys since fans with existing bookings could miss out.

A planned overhaul of the TT festival schedule was announced last month.

Mr Hooper said the proposed changes were publicised well in advance, going all the way back to a consultation exercise carried out in 2021.

Two extra races will also be added to the festival schedule, taking the total number to 10.

Racing will be held over six days rather than four, meaning they will span two weekends instead of one.

'New visitor patterns'

John Wannenburgh MHK said the "TT belongs to all of us" and asked what the minister would do about the "disquiet" there was among local residents about the changes, which also include scheduled racing on Sunday.

Mr Hooper said the event was "designed specifically to bring benefit to the island" by supporting local businesses and the broader economy.

"I think it's important to bear in mind that there will always be a diverse range of views and we have to take all of those views into account when determining things like big changes to the schedules," he added.

"The department expects the revised schedule to encourage new visitor patterns and capitalise on capacity, over time driving an additional 50,000 cumulative bed nights, which would represent an additional spend on Island in the region of £6m each year."