Latest / Best of Business / Leeann Watson: Business Canterbury CEO on the number of international business delegates visiting New Zealand rising by 50%

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Leeann Watson: Business Canterbury CEO on the number of international business delegates visiting New Zealand rising by 50% · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: International business events bouncing back almost at pre COVID levels.
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  Speaker 2: Now stats in zed says fifty percent jumping overseas delegates
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  Speaker 2: in Q one that's sixteen and a half thousand people.
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  Speaker 2: What's at worth fifty four million bucks? Thank you very much. Leanne.
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  Speaker 2: What's in chief executive at Business Canterbury. Good morning, Good
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  Speaker 2: morning Ryan. What's driving the increase?
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  Speaker 3: Oh? Look, I think New Zealand is certainly a great
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  Speaker 3: place to come right now. It's a safe haven. We've
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  Speaker 3: got some amazing convention centers now right across the country
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  Speaker 3: and so you know, people are wanting to get out
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  Speaker 3: to New Zealand and it's a great place to come
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  Speaker 3: and have a conference and it's getting easier to get
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  Speaker 3: to and it's really great to see the year on
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  Speaker 3: your increase across the country. You know, these events make
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  Speaker 3: a significant contribution to the economy, as you've just outlined.
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  Speaker 2: What about the events centers that we've got the christ
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  Speaker 2: Church Events Center, we've got the Auckland International Convention Center.
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  Speaker 2: Do these things make a difference and actually dragging people here.
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  Speaker 3: Well, they absolutely do. And you know we've seen you
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  Speaker 3: know a number of direct flight increases as well. Obviously
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  Speaker 3: they Announcement Bay in New Zealand last week with the
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  Speaker 3: three direct flight increases from Singapore, Tokyo and Perth. Those
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  Speaker 3: sorts of things make a difference because it's just easier
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  Speaker 3: to come to. But having those sort of world class
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  Speaker 3: facilities available in the in the three main centers, I
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  Speaker 3: think you know again gives people choices. It makes it
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  Speaker 3: easy for those involved in you organizing these big international
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  Speaker 3: delegations to have a choice. Obviously in christ Church, you
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  Speaker 3: know we've been up and running for about four years
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  Speaker 3: and you know, to buy Convention Center contributes about around
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  Speaker 3: seventy seven million to National GDP annually in about sixty
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  Speaker 3: three million of that goes to the Canry region. So
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  Speaker 3: you know, this is significant and these are the sorts
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  Speaker 3: of things that we need to continue to attract to
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  Speaker 3: this country.
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  Speaker 2: Len do these people who come here and do their
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  Speaker 2: conference and they fly and fly out, do they ever
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  Speaker 2: come back like do we is it a chance to
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  Speaker 2: get give them a bit of a little strip tease
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  Speaker 2: and they come back for the full Monty?
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  Speaker 3: Look absolutely and I think you know. The important thing
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  Speaker 3: to note here too is when we do have international
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  Speaker 3: delegates in the country, they do tend to spend more
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  Speaker 3: than the domestic tourists. You know, for example in Canterbury,
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  Speaker 3: so those out of region delegates spend on average around
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  Speaker 3: four hundred and ninety six dollars per day while in
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  Speaker 3: the region, and many of them, as you say, do
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  Speaker 3: stay for a couple of days. You know. One of
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  Speaker 3: the probably the disadvantages of New Zealand is it is
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  Speaker 3: a long way to come for a lot of people,
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  Speaker 3: and so you know, rather than just come for two
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  Speaker 3: or three days of a conference, we do find that
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  Speaker 3: they might stay for an extra two or three days,
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  Speaker 3: and for many of them it can be the first
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  Speaker 3: time they've actually come into the country. So it's a
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  Speaker 3: great opportunity to really showcase our studies in region to
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  Speaker 3: those people at the same time and hopefully track them back.
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  Speaker 2: Nice one Land Watson, Chief Executive Business Canterbury.
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