Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Steve Giles: Taupo District Council Events and Venues Manager on the success of the Supercars double header in Taupo and Christchurch
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Supercar weekend was a cracker for tepul. Visitors to the
- 0:03Speaker 1: city apparently spent seven point nine million dollars. That was
- 0:07Speaker 1: despite the fact there was a big old cycone remember
- 0:09Speaker 1: that via ANU, which caused disruptions to the schedule. So
- 0:13Speaker 1: Steve Giles is the event's venue and venues manager for
- 0:16Speaker 1: Topol District Council and joinsing Ow Steve, congratulations big events.
- 0:20Speaker 2: Eh, thank you Andrew one of we'll be on this
- 0:23Speaker 2: morning and look yet was it was a fantastic when
- 0:26Speaker 2: weekend and easily mentioned against the backdrop of a cyclone
- 0:31Speaker 2: to still get those results.
- 0:32Speaker 1: Well, could it have been even bigger if Ione who
- 0:35Speaker 1: hadn't naturally decided to pop in and pay a visit.
- 0:39Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, I think slightly. Obviously we didn't deliver the Sunday,
- 0:42Speaker 2: but we take the ones out of that. We're a
- 0:44Speaker 2: first day of a host city to deliver supercars over
- 0:47Speaker 2: two weekends because we're snuck in a race down in
- 0:48Speaker 2: christ Church. Look, I think probably the numbers would have
- 0:52Speaker 2: held firm anyway, the visitors were in town, and I
- 0:55Speaker 2: think people did listen to the national advice about hunkering
- 0:58Speaker 2: down and staying in town in a perverse kind of way.
- 1:01Speaker 2: While we didn't race and that was really disappointing, we
- 1:03Speaker 2: didn't lose that visitation that had really arrived in total, so.
- 1:06Speaker 1: It's eight million out of supercars. Funnily enough, if the
- 1:09Speaker 1: iron Man Weekend, which is another one of your big events,
- 1:11Speaker 1: that's also an eight million dollars weekend. So those are good.
- 1:15Speaker 1: But you'd like some more, wouldn't you.
- 1:18Speaker 2: Well, absolutely definitely, and look about extending summer too. You know,
- 1:22Speaker 2: we want events ideally that fall in May and June.
- 1:25Speaker 2: There are soft months from an economy perspective in total,
- 1:28Speaker 2: so anything we can push into those. But yeah, it's
- 1:30Speaker 2: pretty hard to swim in the lake in May and June.
- 1:34Speaker 1: So what do you guys do around New Years? And
- 1:37Speaker 1: I say this because I don't know if you've heard,
- 1:39Speaker 1: Rhythm and Vines is on the move and they're looking
- 1:41Speaker 1: for a new venue and they want a venue where
- 1:43Speaker 1: people can camp, and you've got a race course because
- 1:46Speaker 1: people already camp for the supercars. What would you like
- 1:49Speaker 1: to say to the organizers of Rhythm and Vines who
- 1:51Speaker 1: might be looking for you for New Years?
- 1:54Speaker 2: Oh? Hey, look, Total's open for any new business, So
- 1:57Speaker 2: most definitely happy to have a conversation in that space
- 2:00Speaker 2: saying that we are very lucky at the current have
- 2:04Speaker 2: a homegrown event from Trademark that arrived in Tope for
- 2:06Speaker 2: a few years back. Now is really starting to fine.
- 2:08Speaker 2: It's home and I guess that's always been brilliant for
- 2:11Speaker 2: us because it's been a couple of days before Rhythm
- 2:13Speaker 2: and Vines we've managed to sort of draw in that
- 2:15Speaker 2: Auckland crowd as they make their wound out by Gibbon.
- 2:17Speaker 2: So hey, look, if it moved somewhere else, as long
- 2:20Speaker 2: as it was still on that sort of pathway for us,
- 2:23Speaker 2: we'd be happy with that too.
- 2:25Speaker 1: All right, Steve, good luck going forward. And can you
- 2:28Speaker 1: just express to Tope on my condolences because your former
- 2:31Speaker 1: me and David Sawah has died suddenly yesterday, So that
- 2:34Speaker 1: was a sad piece of news.
- 2:35Speaker 2: A thank you. I look, it was a tough day
- 2:38Speaker 2: for the team yesterday, some and I worked really closely
- 2:40Speaker 2: with for well over a decade. So yeah, condolences and
- 2:44Speaker 2: we'll certainly pass those on to the fair.
- 2:45Speaker 1: Okay, buddy, thank you so much. Yes, David was sixty
- 2:47Speaker 1: three years old. I interviewed him last summer and he
- 2:50Speaker 1: was fantastic for the summer breakfast. He was just great.
- 2:53Speaker 1: But death came suddenly. I think he had grandkids, and
- 2:57Speaker 1: I think, yeah, he had a well lived your life.
- 3:00Speaker 1: Used to be in retail for forty years. For more
- 3:03Speaker 1: from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to news Talks.
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