Superyacht and tourism industry expecting America's Cup payoff

Larry Page's superyacht Senses in Auckland Harbour. An America's Cup event in Auckland will boost the superyacht and tourism industries. Photo / Doug Sherring

The superyacht industry is expecting a big boost from an America's Cup event held here and tourism chiefs say the international focus on New Zealand will help their sector.

Although the format for the next Cup regatta hasn't been decided, one leading superyacht agency says a regatta in Auckland would lead to a boost for cruising down here and lead to better facilities being built.

AsiaPacific Superyachts managing director Duthie Lidgard said for the last successful defence of the Cup in 2000, superyachts averaged around 35m to 40m and just a few made the voyage to New Zealand.

"With the average now up over 55m in length, the boats are adventuring more with New Zealand as part of their bucket list. We are already in talks with vessels now three years ahead of planning their trip to New Zealand and the win will increase interest in cruising New Zealand waters," said Lidgard who has just returned from Bermuda and was watching the final race today at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.

The creation of the Viaduct village was due to the 2000 America's Cup defence and this had transformed the waterfront during the last 17 years and led to a flourishing superyacht industry, he said.

''With another event of this kind held in Auckland we would definitely need to see a new major development to ensure we have sufficient infrastructure, base facilities for challengers and new berths for visiting superyachts.

''For the last four years our marinas have been at near maximum capacity for the superyacht visitation each summer, the Americas Cup coming to New Zealand will definitely see a much needed boost for the local industry over the coming years."

Tourism New Zealand chief executive Stephen England-Hall congratulated Emirates Team New Zealand.

''This win yet again highlights New Zealand on the global stage and is good news for the whole country," he said.

"It is too early to even speculate on where the next event will be held or to make predictions or any kind of opportunity assessment."

There were still many decisions that would have an impact on the tourism potential of this event, such as where and when a regatta could be held, how many teams get involved and the form that regatta would take.

"Tourism New Zealand would want to undertake research with our target markets to identify the size of the opportunity. We would however expect to be able to maximise the international media attention that the regatta would generate."

Tourism New Zealand would work with international media to encourage stories about New Zealand as a visitor destination alongside their reporting of the event - as it was currently doing with the Lions tour.

Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Chris Roberts said there were two benefits from hosting an event like the America's Cup - visitation and profile.

"Hosting the America's Cup in New Zealand again will give us an opportunity to promote our country as a premier destination for high value visitors. We can also use international media interest in the Cup to stimulate general interest in visiting New Zealand."

A report done for the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment three years ago says a significant portion of the economic impacts have come from tourism, and wealthy visitors in particular.

''Tourism in terms of the numbers of visitors arriving in New Zealand specifically, or mainly to view the America's Cup regattas have not been high, but the nature of the tourists that do travel here means their impacts are great."