Annie Dundas: Auckland Unlimited Destination Director on hotel occupancy in Auckland reaching 100% due to major events

Auckland businesses are gearing up for a busy Wednesday next week - as hotel occupancy reaches 100%. 

Forty thousand are expected from Metallica fans alone, with the rock band set to perform at Eden Park. 

Meanwhile, nearly 3,800 international delegates are gathering at Aotea Centre for New Zealand's largest ever academic conference, celebrating Indigenous education over five days. 

Auckland Unlimited Destination Director Annie Dundas told Mike Hosking the city will probably average 80-85% occupancy over the summer. 

She says these nice big event spikes lift them up for certain parts of the year, giving the accommodation and hospitality sectors a boost.  

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The tourism story continues to unfold in a positive way.
This time next week, next Wednesday, hotel occupancy in Auckland's
going to be one hundred percent. When was last time
they did that? Years years ago? It acquates to fifty
seven thousand visited Night's Andy Dundass with Auckland unlimited morning.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Make when we say one hundred percent, is it literally
one hundred percent or just a rounded sort of number.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well, it's pretty close. We don't often get this close,
so we're pretty excited.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
So is it a conference in a concert and that's
the sort of thing that tips it over or are
we seeing a broader trend?

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Do you know? These two events have spiked it, but
we are seeing more conferences obviously hit the city as well,
So there's a ton of events on at this you know,
we start November starts our kind of busy season. But
those two events timed at the same time, have just
hit us over that sort of percent mark.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
So over the season, then how close to one hundred
will will we get on an ongoing basis, Well.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
We'll probably average over the summer between eight five percent
occupancy and these nice big events spikes just lift us
up for certain parts of the parts of the year.
The last time we probably had a spike like this
earlier in the year SLGP Luke Combs, prior to that
Pink cold Play Pearl Jam. They kind of just give
those lovely little spikes and really support the accommodation in

(01:17):
hospital sector.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
So what the government's saying, There's two key things there.
One are the new rules around Eden Park that will
make material difference presumably in the opening of the convention center.
So that's good for your side of the equation, I'm assuming.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Very very good. It means that we have a better
well balanced year round program of events and therefore hospitality
and accommodation has a more consistent run at kind of
filling restaurants and filling hotels.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Can the city cope yes, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
And actually what it does it brings such incredible vibrancy.
You know, Busy City is a safe city. The more
people we have in the city, it feels safe, it
feels better, feels more lively. So this is a this
is a great step forward.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Which is the juxtaposition, I guess between what you're trying
to sell and what we hear the news on a
daily basis. Auckland's a dump, downtown's dead. Is that a
problem or does this fix that or help fix it?

Speaker 2 (02:07):
This helps, So vibrancy is great, and you know, we've
got cruise ships starting to pile in, so that's you know,
two three thousand passengers coming off ships to support the
city center. So all of that helps to try and
keep the city lively. We want the city looking great.
We've got a whole lot of work going on around
the nighttime economy, getting you know, Aucklanders and visitors into
the city after five, and that's also helping to drive

(02:29):
vibrancy and filling their news at hospital across the city
as well.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Good stuff Annie Andy Dundas, who's with Auckland Unlimited. Hopefully
it flows around the rest of the country as well.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
news talks that'd be from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.