Events to bolster Wellington summer season

Events to bolster Wellington summer season

Wellington city hoteliers say an exciting programme of events is going to make Wellington a vibrant place to be this summer – and visitors need to book early to avoid missing out.

Steve Martin, Wellington Regional Chairman of the Tourism Industry Association Hotels Sector, says the industry is confident about the power of events to bring visitors to the city.

“A cluster of fantastic Wellington events drove great results over winter and spring, with Wellington enjoying very healthy growth in room nights,” Mr Martin says.

“With so many more highly anticipated events coming up this summer, there’ll be some busy days and weekends ahead.

“Right now visitors will still be able to find a room in the city whether they’re coming for Nitro Circus, Sevens Wellington, CubaDupa or Cricket World Cup - but we’re encouraging people to get in while they can.”

TIA Hotel sector members in Wellington have agreed to further add to the excitement of the Sevens by not imposing holiday surcharges on Waitangi Day to make fans feel even more welcome.

Positively Wellington Tourism CEO David Perks says the mix of summer events is well-balanced, with appeal across a wide variety of markets.

“The return of Nitro Circus is sure to draw a big crowd, as is the Homegrown music festival. Cricket World Cup will deliver international visitors, including England’s Barmy Army, and the long Waitangi weekend coinciding with Sevens Wellington makes for an ideal second summer break. As we saw a few summers ago with Game Masters, Te Papa’s Tyrannosaurs: Meet the Family exhibition is a great incentive for road-tripping families transitioning between islands to stop in the capital for a night or two. And we can’t wait for CubaDupa to round off the summer by bringing the street festival vibe to New Zealand’s coolest urban quarter.”

Steve Martin says getting a balance between growing the available accommodation and maintaining healthy occupancy rates has been well-managed in Wellington.

“January is traditionally a ‘low season’ for Wellington, in terms of domestic visitor numbers and hotel occupancies. However, strategic placement of events to bolster softer times of year has certainly helped attract visitors to the city across the year, and that’s allowed the hotel sector to increase our available rooms over the last 10 years, while occupancy rates have kept pace.”

TIA Chief Executive Chris Roberts says events are identified in the tourism industry’s Tourism 2025 growth framework as an important way to overcome seasonality and encourage travel.

“The Wellington events calendar is a great example of Tourism 2025 in action, and is definitely contributing to our industry goal of almost doubling total tourism revenue to $41 billion a year,” Mr Roberts says.

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