Mega-convention centre proposal turns political

Mayor John Banks.

A national convention centre and a six-star hotel on Bledisloe Container Terminal will be central planks in John Banks' campaign for the mayoralty of the new Auckland Council next year.

The Auckland city mayor said the centre and hotel could be built over five to seven years and he had a strategy in place to fund the estimated $750 million cost.

Banks, who is also promising an improved train service including rail loop to link the Britomart terminus with the western line, said Bledisloe was ideal for super-cruise ships. Smaller ships could use Queens Wharf and the existing passenger terminal on Princes Wharf.

"Long term, the international cruise ship home should be at Bledisloe with an international convention and exhibition centre and a six-star hotel. It is a much bigger wharf than Queens Wharf."

Karen Lyons, group manager in the Auckland City Council strategy office, confirmed that Bledisloe had been looked at as a possible site and would be an attractive option were there not problems with the ownership of the land.

"There are not many sites in central Auckland that are suitable for a centre. You could do it at Bledisloe or perhaps Wynyard Point or you could come back to the Aotea Centre."

Lyons says there are pros and cons with constructing large buildings on the waterfront, especially inward-looking buildings like convention centres.

Plans by the previous Government for a $700 million all-purpose waterfront stadium to replace Eden Park foundered in 2006 in the face of cost and environmental concerns and significant public objections.

Banks' plans for Bledisloe run counter to Ports of Auckland which in June sold nearby Queens Wharf to the Government and the Auckland Regional Council for $40 million - initially to be used as a public venue, dubbed "party central", for the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

Ports of Auckland said it did not favour a convention centre being built on Bledisloe and in April restructured cargo-handling to create a single stevedoring workforce to serve the Fergusson and Bledisloe container terminals. It also opened Bledisloe to non-container use.

But Banks is adamant Bledisloe is the best option for a world-class convention centre - something long billed as essential to Auckland's economic and tourism infrastructure.

"It is one of the planks I will be campaigning on next year and I have a funding strategy for it."

He says Ports of Auckland could solve its financial problems by merging with Northland Port and Port of Tauranga to "get some economies of scale and global competitiveness".

Tourism Auckland chief executive Graeme Osborne says he is more concerned about a convention centre going ahead than debating where it would be built.

"A genuinely global-quality national convention centre is necessary if New Zealand is to be competitive in terms of attracting larger meetings, conferences and conventions," he said.

Osborne says a convention centre was an essential part of destination marketing.

"Investment in tourism is generally well rewarded. If you look at Queensland or Melbourne, they are pretty well marketed and have benefited from corresponding tourism flows.

"Destination and tourism flows are subject to pretty stiff competition. Unless you are in that market strategy [destination marketing] you are not going to have a chance. The only way you can deliver that is by destination marketing.

"Someone has to put Auckland on the radar."

Osborne says tourism in Auckland delivers about $3 billion of gross domestic product a year, or 10 per cent of the Auckland region's GDP and a similar percentage of the region's fulltime-equivalent workforce.

The New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2015, launched by former Prime Minister Helen Clark in 2007, says tourism is valued as a "leading contributor to a sustainable New Zealand economy".

Citing the Metro Project - the combined work of academics, local politicians, planners, business leaders and economists - the strategy says Auckland has the potential to act as an "all-round drawcard for international visitors, business travellers and major events".

But it warns that for this to happen the region, especially the waterfront and downtown, needs to be more attractive with better transport links, public transport and large-scale facilities.

"Auckland must provide an appealing gateway to the rest of New Zealand ...

"To succeed it must have a world-class airport, terminals for cruise ships, and efficient connections into the city - and to the rest of New Zealand. The city needs to provide efficient, user-friendly infrastructure and superb standards of service."

Many of the Metro Project's findings are based on the Bringing the World to Auckland report, an investment analysis undertaken by Auckland-based economic modeller Covec and commissioned by the regional economic development agency AucklandPlus as part of the Metro Project Action Plan.

Bringing the World to Auckland identifies ways of earning more from visitors by attracting higher-spending, longer-staying visitors rather than focusing on increasing overall visitor numbers.

It says conferences and conventions are the "cornerstone of many visitor economies".

"Many potential benchmark cities for Auckland, including Melbourne, Cape Town and Vancouver, are in the process of expanding their conference and convention facilities to enhance the benefits from this market. In most cases, facilities have been doubled or trebled in size to accommodate significant increases in demand."

The report spoke of an "excellent opportunity" to build a conference and convention centre beside the Aotea Centre - within comfortable walking distance of commercial offices, restaurants and bars, entertainment and shops.

Tourism Auckland predicts the "attractive" convention and incentive industry could, with more investment, provide more than $500 million of international visitor spending by 2015.

It says conference and incentive visitors would also be more likely to visit in the shoulder (less busy) season and some would spend up to seven times more a day than average international visitors.

Removing the impact of the seasons on visitor numbers is also identified in the Bringing the World to Auckland report as an important benefit of a having a major convention,

"Careful scheduling can have a marked impact on seasonality. Reducing the disparity between summer and winter and enabling businesses to get a better return on capital."

The Government has given the concept of a convention centre its de facto blessing. In May Prime Minister John Key committed $250,000 of public money to a six- to 12-month feasibility study on the centre.

Auckland City Council said it would contribute a further $20,000 toward the study and $30,000 for the business case.

AucklandPlus group manager Clyde Rogers has welcomed what he described as the Government's "innovative approach" to visitor infrastructure.

He says there is a sense that Auckland has slipped behind Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne in the provision of convention facilities.

"It is that jump between 2500 and 5000 [convention attendees] where there are significant opportunities that New Zealand is missing out on."

Rogers says he expects the new Auckland Council to make the national convention centre a priority.