A convention centre for Auckland not bad business

A convention centre for Auckland not bad business

The funding debate about the proposed $350m Auckland convention centre misses the point when it fails to recognise the benefits the entire project will bring Auckland and New Zealand.

This is the opinion of business group Heart of the City chief executive Alex Swney.

Estimates suggest the financial benefit could be as high as $90m per year to the New Zealand economy.

Swney says all of the major cities Auckland aspires to compete with have an international-standard convention centre of a similar scale to that proposed by SkyCity.

“We are on the cusp of building exactly what the New Zealand tourism industry has been calling for for over a decade. Auckland has already dropped the ball on so many good opportunities. Let’s not kick an own-goal on this one,” says Swney.

“While what we have on the table may not be a perfect outcome there are plenty of lonely people waiting on the corner for a bus named perfection. Auckland needs this long-awaited piece of economic infrastructure.

“If we don’t want Sky City to build a convention centre then we need to find other funding – unfortunately there is no free lunch. We are missing out on a big slice of business simply because we have nowhere to do business,” Swney says.

Of the 8,000 international scale conventions staged globally New Zealand hosts less than half a per cent of them.

The proposed convention centre is expected to create over a thousand jobs during construction and provide a further 800 long term jobs upon completion.

Swney says the economic benefits will flow throughout the city and well beyond. At $650, the daily spend of a convention delegate is almost twice that of a regular tourist. They also typically stay longer in the country than the average tourist.

“The vast majority of the economic benefit from holding conventions happens outside of the doors of the centre itself,” he says.

“Hotels, retail, entertainment, travel, hospitality and many more businesses in the city will benefit from the creation of this convention centre.”

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