j Davis. “There’s not much point if the kettle’s not on and
you’ve got no biscuits.” With the number of people expected
to visit New Zealand rising from 3.7 million to 5.1 million
over the next four years, his simple but to the point analogy
neatly sums up the challenges New Zealand needs to come
up with answers for to successfully manage this expected
growth in tourism and increase in business events.
Numbers don’t lie
There’s no doubt that New Zealand is on a roll with a
buoyant economy and thriving tourism industry. Despite
a rising NZ dollar, the country has been increasingly
successful in persuading Australian organisations and
executive assistants to run their conferences, executive
retreats and other business events in New Zealand rather
than domestically.
A report by the Government, The New Zealand Tourism
Forecast, predicts a continual boom in arrivals to the nation.
Visitor numbers are expected to reach over five million by
2024, which will bring an estimated extra NZD 15 billion
worth of income. The majority of these arrivals will continue
to come from Australia.
This boom in the coming decade will bolster New
Zealand’s tourism industry (and GDP in general), but rapid
growth requires careful planning. The nation’s government
is committed to managing the influx of tourists and business
events, writes Eileen Basher, General Manager of Research,
Evaluation and Analytics, Ministry of Business, Innovation
and Employment, in the report.
“With international arrivals and spend expected to
continue to grow in the coming years, the government is
focused on encouraging visitors to explore not only our
iconic destinations, but also lesser-known regions across
New Zealand.”
“The Government is also working to encourage and
support the sustainable use of New Zealand’s resources for
tourism and to manage impacts from rapid growth.”
A big chunk of these visitors will be for business travel
and events. The 2018 Executive PA Corporate Event Organiser
Survey indicates that “the proportion of respondents who
have organised corporate events in New Zealand in the past
two years have significantly increased.”
The survey reveals a 15 percent increase in Australian
EAs and corporate organisers planning their events in New
Zealand. Organisers are also spending 10 percent more than
last year, despite a rise in the NZD’s value and cost of living.
“The Government is also
working to encourage and
support the sustainable use
of New Zealand’s resources
for tourism and to manage
impacts from rapid growth”
30 Chief of Staff | Issue 2 2019
The man on the ground
Steve Hanrahan has had a
dynamic career. Originally from
the UK, he knows the pull of
New Zealand better than most,
as I ask him how it all began.
“The people I worked with
invited me over for a holiday to
New Zealand, brought me around Queenstown
and I got hooked. I quit my job and six months
later I was out here on a working-holiday visa.”
After working as a hotel concierge in
Queenstown and earning his Les Clefs d’Or keys,
he grew tired of being cooped up behind the desk
in a hotel lobby.
“The idea for Concierge Queenstown started
coming into my head because I’d see all these
holiday homes, all these Airbnb properties and
corporate groups coming in with no-one looking
after them. If they’re not coming into hotels, then
whose looking after them?” he recalls.
Steve’s company, Concierge Queenstown is
a mobile concierge service. He is the ‘man on
the ground’ for visitors, corporate groups, and
executive assistants; he organises, plans and
helps execute trips to the iconic South Island
destination.
For corporates, he plans the entire experience
before the guests arrive. Being a local, Steve has
the ability to roll with the punches, and deal with
any interruptions or roadblocks. In many ways,
Steve is similar to an EA. He relies on his network
of contacts and local knowledge to solve the
unsolvable.
“The biggest thing is being on the ground. Being
here, in the right time zone, being able to shuffle
activities around and to smooth out the bumps,” he
says. “It’s about reading people and understanding
what they want. It’s the same as how EAs read
their bosses and understand them, their experience
and what they are trying to achieve.”
Working in the field has given Steve a look-in
to the growth of business events in the town.
“There’s going to be so many more reasons to
come here soon, and Queenstown shows no sign
of slowing down,” he says. “You’ve got so many
different corporate venues opening up now.”
“We do quite a lot of work at the airport, and
we see a lot of corporate groups getting picked
up. I think incentive travel is definitely on the rise.”
Steve and I spoke at length about New
Zealand’s many attractions, and it became
obvious why the country has been so successful
in attracting events and visitors from across the
world. New Zealand is a unique destination, and
friendly, passionate locals such as Steve are the
backbone of its success.