For the great majority of Wellington’s life, it has been laden with the perception that it did little more than play home to our government and throngs of overpaid, underperforming civil servants. Well how times have changed. By Melinda Collins
Today it’s widely regarded as not only the governmental, but cultural capital of the country.
It’s the unofficial home of our film industry, the Wearable Arts, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa, the Royal New Zealand Ballet and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Private sector hubs, such as in technology, are gaining considerable traction and the Wellington Sevens are now, thanks to local enthusiasm, practically a national institution.
So the reality has changed, but has the perception?
Much like a business, it doesn’t matter how great you are, all that matters is the perception you create. And the man charged with transforming the wider perception of Wellington is Positively Wellington Tourism CEO David Perks.
It has been a successful year for the Wellington tourism sector – the city got the ‘Coolest Capital’ nod from Lonely Planet and had, admittedly like much of the country, a successful Rugby World Cup.
Tourism is, after all, one of Wellington’s key economic and social drivers. So how can it continue in this vein, especially with Auckland’s supercity status and the Christchurch rebuild hogging the headlights? How can Wellington continue to attract its fair share of attention and build on progress already made?
It’s been an unexpected outcome to a unique year, David explains. “This year has in some ways been a surprise; with tight economic conditions and the Christchurch earthquake… but Wellington has been able to pull itself through one of the hardest years and remain in top form.”
Today’s form, he says, is based on a tourism strategy designed in the 1990s. “Wellington has had a tourism strategy for 15 years based on partnership with the private sector and all this effort and investment means the city has been able to do this well during the past 12 months.
“In those days Wellington wasn’t a destination. So, after 15 years of shouting from the rooftops that this is the greatest city, it is fantastic to have others looking critically at Wellington and saying ‘well, yes it is’.”
Achieving this kind of success requires more than playing name games. Producing a catchy phrase that rolls off the tongue is one thing, but changing mainstream perception is something else altogether. And the way New Zealanders perceive their capital today couldn’t be more different from that of two decades ago.
“We will continue to build on this strategy, continue to invest in marketing Wellington and continue to work as a partnership with the private sector.”
That private sector relationship is worth almost $3 million a year for the city’s marketing campaign. “What makes Wellington’s tourism unique is the investment we get from our investment partners. We get just short of $6 million from the Wellington City Council towards marketing the city and our total spend is about $9 million – the difference is filled by private sector investment.
“This allows for a significant amount of marketing. But it’s the region’s attributes which really attracts people to Wellington – our marketing is simply about sharing those attributes with the world.”
As part of the ongoing strategy, Positively Wellington Tourism released the Wellington Visitor Strategy 2015 at the end of 2008, mapping out how the city can get the world to recognise it as the ‘Best Little Capital in the World’ by 2015.
A charitable trust principally funded by the Wellington City Council (WCC), Positively Wellington Tourism’s role is to create economic and social benefits for Wellington by working with the private sector to market the city as an attractive visitor destination. Essentially the organisation aims to increase the number of visitors to Wellington and to extend the length of stay of those visitors. “Creating an exciting and interesting destination for visitors serves the dual purpose of making Wellington a better place to live and visit.”
And experience, he says, taught him how important visitors are.
“I worked with Millennium Hotels for more than 10 years, then spent six years managing the Copthorne at Waitangi. That was a big business in a small district where tourism was a direct economic driver,” David explains. “This position has been good for me to understand just how important tourism can be to the health of a regional economy.”
Economic health wise, the city is heading in the right direction, he says. “The quantum leaps that Wellington city has made have been fuelled by bold infrastructural investment; Te Papa, Westpac Stadium, Oriental Bay Beach, and the regeneration of Courtenay Place to name a few. These big decisions are absolutely, positively what has moved Wellington to where it is today. Now we need to be looking for the next opportunity.”
Looking for a little neighbourly love
Back in the 90s Positively Wellington Tourism’s first port of call was to sell Wellington to Wellingtonians. “They began to love the city they call home and today Wellington is a proud city with a vibrant CBD every day of the year. Then we had to work on promoting the city around the rest of New Zealand.
“The activities and events we have means Wellington is repeatedly voted the best destination for New Zealanders; it’s a place for conferences, meetings, events, people enjoy being here.”
We’ve won over New Zealanders, now it’s time to work on our neighbours, David says. “Wellington needs to be at front of mind for Australians planning a New Zealand holiday and Positively Wellington Tourism wants to inspire them to see Wellington as a long weekend break in the way we view the likes of Sydney and Melbourne.
“Whatever we do, it must be ‘Wellington-ised’. Whether it be an event, a new product, an infrastructural development, or a campaign, it must be creative, innovative and enforce our place as the country’s cultural capital.”
This includes exploring how we can get an ongoing long haul flight service from Wellington to ensure ease of travel for international guests of Sydney and Melbourne.
“Whatever we do, it must be ‘Wellington-ised’. Whether it be an event, a new product, an infrastructural development, or a campaign, it must be creative, innovative and enforce our place as the country’s cultural capital.”
This includes exploring how we can get an ongoing long haul flight service from Wellington to ensure ease of travel for international guests.
Consumer hooks
The ‘events capital’ model has been an incredible success story for Wellington, David says. “We need to continually develop our iconic events and find new and exciting ones to keep drawing visitors back; if we don’t, Wellington risks losing its competitive edge.
“As the business community works against a recession, sponsorship dollars are drying up. This is a major risk to the events industry and wider community. Wellington’s events capital reputation contributes to the innovative and creative reputation we all enjoy and benefit from.”
A destination needs to constantly develop new hooks to draw consumers in. “We must constantly view Wellington with a critical eye to ensure we continue to attract both new and seasoned visitors. We can never see Wellington as perfect, no matter how much we love our city; we must always seek to improve.
“The city has made the most of the harbour and film industries, and these are two major areas of opportunity for the development of further iconic Wellington tourism experiences.”
While David believes in the importance of constant reinvigoration, key strategies which have proven successful should certainly stay.
“Firstly we mustn’t drop the tourism strategy which has proved so successful. This partnership approach which has worked so well for so long has created stellar results for our city while others are struggling,” he says.
One market the capital can, and perhaps needs to take advantage of, is as a domestic conference destination. “A large conference facility continues to be a gap for our city and many major acts skip the cultural capital due to our lack of an appropriate indoor events centre. Our current facilities are not designed for conventions; the TSB Bank Arena and the Westpac Stadium can handle the job, but since Auckland completed the Vector Arena, it feels a bit like we’re missing out.
“This has got to change. We need to make the most of the opportunities in that area.
“If Wellington can provide good quality jobs, the lifestyle you can fit around those jobs, an array of arts and culture events and whole city events which take over the city… these are things that make for a good lifestyle and good lifestyle is what attracts people to visit and settle in our city. We’re very fortunate to be the ‘Coolest Capital’ with high quality experiences that anywhere in the world would be proud of.”
