Barmy Army’s return to light up city’s economy

Wellington is bracing for a whirlwind $28 million week when the Barmy Army arrives with dry throats, empty tummies and full wallets to watch the British and Irish Lions take on the All Blacks next year.

Tourism bosses predict almost 20,000 rugby fans will travel from outside the region to watch the Lions play the All Blacks on July 1 at Westpac Stadium, with another 8500 descending upon the city on June 27 to watch them play the Hurricanes.

The word out of Europe is that demand for Wellington match tickets and accommodation far exceeds supply already.

Most of the central city’s 3000 hotel beds have already been booked.

The last Lions tour of New Zealand, in 2005, generated $23m in extra spending in Wellington. The whole event pumped about $120m into the nation’s coffers.

This time around the Lions schedule has been good to Wellington, with matches against the Hurricanes and All Blacks at the 34,500-seat Westpac Stadium just five days apart.

That means travelling fans will base themselves in the capital for a week, and keeping the Barmy Army close should allow the city to cash in to a greater extent than in 2005, when there was a three-week gap between its games.

David Perks, general manager of the Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency (Wreda), described the early interest from Lions fans as phenomenal.

‘‘There’s more interest than there are seats [at Westpac Stadium] . . . it’s already pretty challenging finding a room in Wellington for that week,’’ he said.

Wreda also expects that Wellington will benefit from the equivalent of $500,000 worth of advertising simply by having the Barmy Army and a 100-plus

28,200 extra visitors to the country during June 2005

$239 spent by each tourist, each day (on average)

$120 million in economic benefit to the country

82 per cent of Lions fans said they would probably come back

$23 million in extra spending in Wellington media contingent in the city.

But the travelling fans will also bring challenges. One of those would be finding space for an estimated 3000 campervans.