City targeting conferences

The Dunedin City Council is eyeing a potentially lucrative collaboration with Tourism New Zealand that could help secure a bigger slice of the international conference market.

The council's new agency, Enterprise Dunedin, is working with Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) to establish an ''Advocates'' programme in Dunedin.

The programme would bring together up to 30 of the city's key academics and business leaders to act as ambassadors and help attract international conferences to Dunedin.

Enterprise Dunedin business events tourism adviser Bree Jones told yesterday's DCC economic development committee meeting a similar programme was already being rolled out in Auckland.

Auckland authorities had signed a memorandum of understanding with TNZ, providing exclusivity for a year, but TNZ would then look to expand the programme into other centres, she said.

Dunedin appeared to be in a race with Wellington to be next when TNZ looked for its second partner.

TNZ had determined Dunedin's strengths, including the University of Otago and its Dunedin School of Medicine, made it an ''ideal'' candidate for similar collaboration, she said.

TNZ had been granted an extra $34 million over four years from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to help centres bid for international business events, Mrs Jones said.

Business events were already worth $17.5 million a year to the Dunedin economy, and the city had enjoyed recent success securing major international conferences, she said.

That included the 20th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals, which attracted 1100 delegates in December last year and contributed $2 million to the city's economy, she said.

Dunedin was eyeing other events, including a bid to host the International Camellia Society's annual congress in 2022, she said.

As well as Dunedin's specific areas of expertise, its heritage and wildlife attractions were a significant attraction for conference organisers, she said.

However, the city needed to make the most of the ''window of opportunity'' it had before new conference facilities began opening elsewhere in the country, including Auckland and Queenstown, from 2017, she said.

chris.morris@odt.co.nz

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