Event Tourism

This research was commissioned by the Wanganui Blooming Artz Festival Trust in order to gain a better understanding of the profile and satisfaction of visitors to the festival, and the economic significance of the event to Wanganui. The research included online surveys of festival visitors and market stallholders, and a (paper-based) survey of local businesses. While the sample size from the visitor survey is low, results provide some sense of characteristics and expenditure, and provide a tool which can be refined for future use.

The overall goal of the research was to see if there were "winners and losers" in the tourism and leisure sectors in terms of benefitting from the America's Cup event. The macro-scale impact analysis done by McDermott-Fairgray/Ernst & Young (October, 2000) suggested the entire Auckland region had done well. We wanted to examine this conclusion at the micro-scale.

The focus of this report is on the economic impacts of the Mt Ruapehu ski areas on the economy of Ohakune and the surrounding region. We review visitor characteristics (including expenditure), the income and employment generation capabilities of the ski area and local businesses, and visitor and local business attitudes towards the ski area.