International convention visitor spend up 17% in New Zealand

Business events are generating high value for New Zealand’s visitor industry, and national bureau Conventions and Incentives New Zealand (CINZ), with international delegates’ spend on the rise. The Convention Delegate Survey (CDS) released by New Zealand’s Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) for the year to December 2017 shows the total spend by international convention delegates was up 17% compared to 2016. CINZ chief executive Sue Sullivan (pictured) says business events are a major growth sector for New Zealand with nightly spend for international convention delegates over 50% higher than the average nightly spend of international visitors in general. “This can only grow as our value proposition strengthens, and we gear up for major new convention centre and hotel infrastructure which will give us the ability to cater for much larger multi-day conventions,” Sullivan says. Sullivan notes also that New Zealand’s business events sector “provides key support for infrastructure development, business relationships, knowledge transfer and industry investment, with the benefits spreading across both city and regional economies”. Multi-day convention delegates stayed an estimated 1,080,000 visitor nights in New Zealand and they spent an estimated NZ$506m (US$366m) in 2017. The average per-person per-night spend for all delegates who spent time away from home to attend conferences was $385. That total spend figure, however, was still a little down on last year’s $588m which was driven by high domestic growth in 2016, but still a decent step up from $472m in 2015. The Convention Delegate Survey shows strong growth in international convention delegate spend was driven by an increase in delegates (up 9%), and length of stay (up 20% to 7.2 nights), but offset by a fall in nightly spend (down 10% cent from 2016 to $299).