Spreading the word on a shoestring

By ELLEN READ

Small businesses often have limited advertising budgets and need to find other ways to raise their profile.

The Howick Historical Village, with a full-time staff of seven, has become expert at this, and its efforts brought it the top tourism operation title in this year's Manukau Business Awards.

The museum, which has won several awards over the years, presents life in a fencible village during the early settlement of Europeans in Auckland.

It was opened in 1980 on a site leased from Manukau City Council and contains more than 30 carefully restored buildings.

It attracts around 40,000 visitors a year, has a volunteer group of more than 200 and costs $400,000 a year to run.

Three years ago, it leased space to a cafe, which produces extra income for the village and attracts more visitors.

The village runs a "live day" on the third Sunday of each month - where volunteers dress in period costume and re-enact village life - and director Alan La Roche has a "This Day in History" spot on local radio each Friday afternoon.

The village was also involved in training the Feyen family, who took part in the television series Pioneer House, in which the 21st-century family lived as families did in the early 1900s.

Mr La Roche said these activities generated interest and publicity for the village through people attending the live days and spreading the word among their friends and family.

Radio listeners often became interested in snippets of local history and visited the village to find out more.

The Pioneer House series also led to a large increase in visitors to the village as interest in history was awakened.

"You have to make your own opportunities," Mr La Roche said.

"We'd like to be able to afford to spend more on advertising but we can't, so things like [the radio segment] really help our profile."

The village now receives an annual grant from the council, but initial fundraising was through cake stalls in Picton St in Howick and Christmas card sales.

Mr La Roche said the council money was a great help and it would have been hard to keep the village going without it.

The extra money allowed more restoration work to be done, and the fact that much of it was done by volunteers stretched the grant further.

The village has New Zealand's most extensive collection of early colonial buildings, including raupo whares, a courthouse, schools, a general store, fencible soldiers' cottages, a church and a forge.

The fencible settlers, veteran soldiers pensioned from the British Army, were eager to leave Ireland during the potato famine, or the industrial strife of Britain.

They were offered free passage to New Zealand with their families between 1847 and 1854.

Their pensions continued for life and they were guaranteed work, a two-room cottage on arrival and a plot of land - providing they attended church parade and church on Sunday and up to 12 days of military training a year.

The soldiers were over 45 years old, many with 20 years or more overseas service in unhealthy places. Only four men a regiment were allowed to marry while overseas, so most retired to marry and start families.

The village's historic origins do not mean it can avoid keeping up with the play today. In response to growing demand from international visitors, it produces its visitor guides and brochures in Mandarin, German, Japanese and Korean.

It hopes to add more to the list as time and finances allow.