Next year's Rugby World Cup is expected to bring $36 million, 35,000 visitors and seven cruise ships to Northland - but the real benefit will be the chance to showcase the region to the world.
Enterprise Northland's Stewart McElwain, regional project co-ordinator for the Rugby World Cup, said the event's legacy in the North would be improved sports infrastructure and worldwide exposure.
Up to 2500 sports media personnel would be based in New Zealand during the event, which was a promotional opportunity the region would otherwise never be able to afford.
The three teams playing in Northland - Canada, Tonga and Japan - would spend a minimum of 17 nights based in the Bay of Islands. At least one team was expected to arrive a few nights early to acclimatise.
The teams were expected to spend a few nights in Whangarei ahead of their matches at the new Northland Events Centre at Okara Park.
While in the Bay, the players would train at the new Kerikeri Sports Complex, the Bledisloe Domain in Waitangi and the ASB Community Pool in Kawakawa.
The initial Tourism NZ estimate for the number of visitors to Northland was 25,000 but that was revised upwards once the number of cruise ships heading for the Bay of Islands became known.
Tourism NZ was also working on a campaign urging World Cup visitors to "take the long way round".
Mr McElwain said that meant encouraging them to visit not just the towns hosting matches, but also "the Ahiparas, the Doubtless Bays, the Mangawhais" to experience the full range of what New Zealand had to offer.
Festivals and events were also being staged around the country, with 25 registered so far in Northland.
Mr McElwain said neither the Northland Events Centre in Whangarei nor the Kerikeri Sports Complex were built for the World Cup, but the tournament had given the projects extra impetus and, in the case of Okara Park, extra government
funding.
Northland's proximity to Auckland meant the region was likely to reap major benefits in the final two weeks of the tournament, when the action was concentrated on Eden Park.
For more information on what's planned, see: www.northland2011.com and www.rugbyworldcup.com
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