Catherine Harris.
Cities are gearing up for the influx of Lions fans – but there may be more Brits than expected, writes
Whangarei is humming. When the British and Irish Lions kick off their New Zealand tour by playing the Provincial Barbarians in Whangarei on June 3, the town’s cafes and pubs are expected to be packed.
Ninety per cent of the match’s 20,000 tickets have sold, and accommodation on the night is booked out.
The Lions have not played Whangarei since 1993 and Peter Gleeson, the local council’s economic development manager, says there are high hopes that this tour will replicate the success of the last Lions visit in 2005.
‘‘These events create excitement and vibrancy and even your locals benefit out of it, not only financially but that feelgood factor.’’
Since many of the Brits will fly in later in the month-long tour, most of the fans at the Whangarei game are expected to be Kiwis. So local retailers are philosophical about the benefits.
‘‘If they have money at the start of the tour, they never really spend,’’ one longtime Whangarei souvenir shop owner said. ‘‘They’ve got all that time to wait.’’
However, the previous Lions tour was a great showcase for the town, even without a game, she says. ‘‘We found that they brought back family and friends within probably the next 18 months.’’
Rotorua’s Maori cultural and geothermal centre, Te Puia, is also preparing for ‘‘a better than normal midwinter flush of business’’ leading up to the Lions versus Maori All Blacks match on June 17.
‘‘We’ll notice a significant benefit and I would suggest others will as well,’’ its chief executive, Tim Cossar, says.
The Lions Tour will be one of the largest events hosted by New Zealand since 2011’s Rugby World Cup, involving 10 matches and seven cities.
And, as usual, it won’t just be good sport, but good business. Ninety-five per cent of the public tickets have sold, and the country is preparing to be invaded by about 20,000 British fans, about the same number as the previous tour.
While there are no forecasts on the national economic returns, organisers will be hoping to at least beat the $135 million contribution to GDP that the last tour generated.
However, a few things have changed. Before the global financial crisis, austerity measures and Brexit, Lions fans were probably a little more carefree with their cash.
But fans who came last time will quickly discover a drop in their spending power. In 2005 the New Zealand dollar was about a third of the pound and now it’s about half.
‘‘People are going to find their pounds and euros are not nearly going as far this time round,’’ ASB economist Daniel Snowden says.
Another major difference from the last tour is the strength of New Zealand’s tourism boom, which may make it harder and more expensive to find accommodation.
Many fans will have bought packages that include accommodation, but those wanting to spontaneously find a bed in Auckland or Queenstown could really struggle.
Snowden says: ‘‘We do have a lot more accommodation but also tourism in New Zealand is a much, much bigger industry than it was in 2005 and also they’re coming during the ski season.’’
The lack of supply is beginning to push up accommodation prices. ‘‘And if they’re spending more on their bed, they can spend less in the restaurant.’’
Startlingly, there is an outside chance that more fans could turn up than expected.
Mieke Welveart, an economist with Infometrics, has looked at the Australian experience with Lions tours and found that the turnout of fans in 2013 was much higher than 12 years before. Some 24,600 Lions fans showed up to the Australian tour in 2013, 9000 more than in 2001.
But it was a blip in a long-term decline of tourists from Britain and Ireland.
Other countries are competing hard for the UK tourist dollar and, like Australia, the number of British visitors to New Zealand has waned.
‘‘New Zealand receives about 70,000 fewer tourists from the UK and Ireland than we did back in early 2005,’’ Welveart says. So the country is keen to put on a good show.
To relieve the accommodation pressures, ATEED – Auckland’s Tourism, Events and Economic Development body – has opened up ‘‘pop up’’ campervan parks at the Ellerslie and Alexandra Park race courses, freeing up about 900 sites.
ATEED’s general manager of visitor and external relations, Steve Armitage, says Auckland is expecting the tour to bring in $26.7m for the city and generate 165,210 bed nights.
Despite that, he doesn’t expect too many problems. The city is getting increasingly used to hosting major events, including the recent World Master’s Games and its 28,000 participants.
Preparations include 150 volunteer ‘‘ambassadors’’ whose sole aim is to ensure fans have a good experience.
Entertainers will line fan trails all the way from the waterfront to Eden Park, and public transport access is built into many tickets.
During the last tour, campervans were in high demand; this year the only concerns to come to the surface yet are in Wellington, which is about 100 campervan sites short.
That’s where the rise of private accommodation services such as Airbnb and Bookabach may come to the rescue, Warwick Beauchamp, a director of Campable, says.
Campable matches campervan drivers with willing property owners, in a similar mode to the way Airbnb does with homeowners.
‘‘Last time my understanding is that every motor home in the country was booked out,’’ Beauchamp says. ‘‘This time there’s a whole lot more places for them to park, other than in Wellington. But we’re working on solving that.’’
Tim Alpe, chief executive of the Jucy rental car, motor home and accommodation company, is also comfortable that this time the supply of campervans won’t run dry.
June was a quiet month, ‘‘so to have an influx of people over that period of time is fantastic’’.
‘‘From a Jucy perspective, we’re definitely busy. Is it as busy as last time? Probably not at this stage. That said, we get a lot of last-minute business.’’
In the far south, John Christie of Enterprise Dunedin expects the Lions versus Highlanders match on June 10 will be a sellout, but believes everyone should be able to find a bed.
‘‘It’s at a time of year where for us it’s off-season, so we believe the city will be able to cope,’’ he says.
‘‘It’s not always their first preference and can come at additional cost to what some people are prepared to pay, but there is generally accommodation available at various different levels.’’
And if the economic benefits go further than the pubs and hotels, it will be warmly welcomed, he says.
‘‘Depending on where people are coming from, it does spread out wider than that, with people taking the opportunity to look at tourist attractions, do some retail shopping and hopefully enjoy some of the other aspects the city has to offer.’’