Latest / Best of Business / Mat Woods: Destination Queenstown CEO on the the $130 million luxury hotel set to be built in Queenstown

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Mat Woods: Destination Queenstown CEO on the the $130 million luxury hotel set to be built in Queenstown · Best of Business

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• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Good Father Dupe to see Al.
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  Speaker 2: I was telling you earlier about this new one hundred
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  Speaker 2: and thirty million dollars superluxury hotel being built in Queenstown.
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  Speaker 2: It's called the Noctus Hotel. It's going to sit on
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  Speaker 2: an elevated one point two hectare site in Fernhill. Has
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  Speaker 2: been described as one of the largest hospitality investments in
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  Speaker 2: Queenstown's history. And when I say super luxury, I mean it.
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  Speaker 2: You have thirty seven ultra high end residences. They start
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  Speaker 2: with three hundred square meter three hundred square meter junior suites,
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  Speaker 2: six hundred and seventy square meters executive residences, or the
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  Speaker 2: presidential pent house, which has got ten bedrims and comes
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  Speaker 2: in at a cool twelve hundred square meters. Matt Woods
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  Speaker 2: is the CEO of Destination Queenstown. Hey, Matt Hy, how
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  Speaker 2: are you, Heather, Matt, I'm very well. But geez, I'll
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  Speaker 2: tell you what. How good does this sound for you? Guys?
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  Speaker 2: Do you reckon? You have the people to fill it?
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  Speaker 3: Oh? Look, I think it's a great thing. From New Zealand.
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  Speaker 3: I think it's one of those pieces that we actually
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  Speaker 3: need in the terrorism puzzle here for those high end
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  Speaker 3: visitors that are coming to New Zealand that are looking
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  Speaker 3: for something like this. So it's not just for Queenstown.
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  Speaker 3: I see this actually for as a draw card for
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand.
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  Speaker 2: How many people do you reckon turn up in Queenstown
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  Speaker 2: and want to stay in a place as bougie as this.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I hope we've got thirty seven.
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  Speaker 2: When you say it like that, thirty seven is not
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  Speaker 2: a lot. I mean that's going to fill up in
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  Speaker 2: the ski season, isn't it.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Look, and I think that's a really interesting point. And
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  Speaker 3: as we see the government at the moments investing in
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  Speaker 3: terrorism and putting money back into marketing and actually hopefully
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  Speaker 3: into our infrastructure as well. You know, thirty seven people
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  Speaker 3: for these high end rooms actually isn't a crazy amount
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  Speaker 3: when you consider the amount of international visitors that do
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  Speaker 3: come to New Zealand. But I think it's really important
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  Speaker 3: that we look in Queenstown too. We actually have something
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  Speaker 3: for everybody, so it's not just all high end. We've
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  Speaker 3: got backpacker accommodation and we've got mid price points as well.
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  Speaker 3: It was interesting to hear in the weekend. You know,
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  Speaker 3: Antony Albanesi, the Prime Minister of Australia, was in Queenstown
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  Speaker 3: this weekend and he referred to his first trip to
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  Speaker 3: Queenstown when he was a backpacker staying in a hostel. So,
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  Speaker 3: you know, it's really important that we actually have a
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  Speaker 3: whole spread, you know, from backpacker all the way through
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  Speaker 3: to this high end. And obviously these guys have seen
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  Speaker 3: a real hole in the market and they can see
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  Speaker 3: the confidence to invest one hundred and thirty million in
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  Speaker 3: this property, which is fantastic, you know, and it's really
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  Speaker 3: good to see that the public sector is prepared to
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  Speaker 3: actually the private sector is prepared to invest one hundred
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  Speaker 3: and thirty million, you know. So that's amazing from the
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  Speaker 3: private sector. And what we really need to see is
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  Speaker 3: the public sector investing in infrastructure to go along with
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  Speaker 3: this as well.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so what you're talking about.
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  Speaker 3: Hospitals, you know, hospitals would be something we needed in
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  Speaker 3: counst Down. Absolutely we don't have one, but also we
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  Speaker 3: do have a lot of issues on other infrastructure and
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  Speaker 3: particularly congestion and roading. So if we could actually see
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  Speaker 3: investment in that. I think that's one of those things
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  Speaker 3: that our visitors and our community alike would really like
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  Speaker 3: to see from the visitor economy.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, totally. Hey, in terms of you know, the best
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  Speaker 2: times that Queenstown's ever had, how close to that are
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  Speaker 2: you or how far away?
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  Speaker 3: Oh? Look, every time it's the best time in Queenstown,
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  Speaker 3: isn't it. But you know, at the moment we are.
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  Speaker 3: We've got fantastic snow. Clearly, Otago and Southland's doing really
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  Speaker 3: well at the moment and that's on the back of
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  Speaker 3: tourism and agriculture. You know, so both Southland and Otago
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  Speaker 3: are doing really well. But you know, tourism we are.
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  Speaker 3: We're fortunate that we have a great airport and we
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  Speaker 3: get great connectivity and a lot of visitors from Australia.
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  Speaker 3: So we've seen great connectivity coming out of Australia and
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  Speaker 3: we're still seeing lots of local domestic visitors coming down
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  Speaker 3: to Queenstown and enjoying what we have.
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  Speaker 2: Brilliant stuff. Matt, Thanks very much for your time. Matt Woods,
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  Speaker 2: CEO of Destination Queenstown.
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