With the Government prepared to contribute towards a purpose-built conference centre in Queenstown, a new study into the feasibility of such a facility has found there is a "good overall business case".
Tomorrow the Queenstown Lakes District Council will discuss the study, undertaken by Horwath Hotel, Tourism and Leisure and WHK for the council, and decide what to do next.
The study said with the resort's attractive setting and "excellent air service connections with the main centres in New Zealand and Australia" a purpose-built centre should have a "competitive advantage to more remotely located regional centres in New Zealand".
It was estimated a centre with the capacity to host 750-800 delegates would cost $43.7 million, (including cost escalations for the next two years).
A report by the council's acting chief executive and general manager of finance Stewart Burns, to be discussed tomorrow in Wanaka, recommends the council delegate tasks such as determining a site to the Queenstown Conference Centre Working Party, chaired by the mayor.
On Friday, Queenstown Mayor Vanessa van Uden said in order to secure Government funding the process needed to be as thorough as possible.
Mayor van Uden said should the council accept the report, steps would then be considered "in terms of delegating further tasks to the working party, including seeking formal proposals from interested parties and the preparation of a business case, which would be further considered by council".
The study predicted the centre could expect to break even in terms of cashflow in year three, and by year five "it could be generating more than $9.6 million in direct revenue".
Overall, it was concluded "there is sufficient capacity to support the projected increase in activity that a new centre would generate, over and above any increase in demand that the current forecasts of future growth in visitor numbers might indicate".
"However, given the relatively high capital cost of the proposed facility, the modest direct cash returns it would generate, but the significant wider economic impact it will generate, the funding to build the facility will require a broad element of risk-sharing."
In June 2011 Prime Minister John Key said the Government would be prepared to contribute funding to a centre in Queenstown, and Ms van Uden said the council had been working closely with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Enterprise.
"It's not as simple as if we build this, they will come, it's a case of if we build the right sort of facility, they will come.
"We need to get it right the first time and the work that has been undertaken to date will help us achieve this," she said.
