As Auckland's city centre prepares for another year, Heart of the City Chief Executive, Viv Beck, has shared her thoughts on what needs to be done for the future of the local hotel and tourism sector.
"A hotel foyer full of people has a particular buzz – with people on holiday, attending conferences, and others coming to meet friends and business associates. Speaking personally, I love staying in hotels and happily grab any chance to do so, both locally and when travelling overseas. And during COVID, I found our beautiful city centre hotel lobbies could almost transport me to a far-off destination.
Heart of the City Chief Executive,
Viv Beck
Seeing tourists back in hotels has been a sweet sight over the last year since our borders reopened. As the business association for the heart of our city, our focus is on supporting a successful city centre. Over the next three years we will see both the City Rail Link and NZ International Convention Centre open, and our vision is to be a vibrant, 24/7 international city that is loved by locals and visitors alike. There is a lot to look forward to, but we recognise that there are some hurdles that need to be overcome to get there.
Overall, city centre metrics are trending positively, with spend in the 12 months ending September 2023 back to 90% of the same period in 2019. Accommodation and the Café and Restaurant categories came in at the top of international spending, which on average is around 20% of the overall spend here. Visitors are particularly loving the waterfront, the rooftop bars, and the events. However, we are not yet through the challenges. During the year, I have been in a number of discussions with Auckland’s accommodation operators and consistently hear that one of biggest needs for the industry – and it rings true for the wider city centre - is simply to have more people here.
Events are critical to this. Auckland needs a strong pipeline of events confirmed beyond next year and we have been vocal in highlighting the need to secure funding to achieve this. The FIFA Women’s World Cup was good for the city, and whilst it’s a real blow that the Sail GP event will not take place in Auckland as planned in March, the World Choir Games scheduled for July will be a treat to behold. It is expected to bring over 10,000 participants along with their supporters right to the heart of Auckland.
With a bumper cruise season demonstrating the interest in visiting our country, we’re hopeful that the summer season will deliver positive news for our tourism and accommodation sector, along with our highly rated hospitality and unique experiences.
Along with our drive to bring more people here through our own destination marketing and events, we have been actively involved in work to improve safety. Locally, this includes a coordinated approach with NZ Police, Auckland Council, the private sector and our own safety programmes. And, after lobbying throughout the covid period, we are optimistic the new government will act quickly on calls for more police on the street and strengthening the cross-agency approach to deal with social issues.
Long term confidence in the city centre is evident with the number of developments underway or planned. New businesses are opening and we’ve loved welcoming a number of new operators such as the Holiday Inn Express and the voco, as well as the JW Marriott. On the horizon, there are new hotels underway and/or nearing completion such as the Intercontinental at No. 1 Queen Street, the Hotel Indigo on Albert Street, the Horizon by SKYCITY and the Raddison RED at 280 Queen Street.
All up a very impressive offering. And with all of this new capacity coming online, it’s essential that we can grow the number of people visiting here, have more great events confirmed and address safety concerns to secure our place as a must-see and stay destination."
