How did the RWC 2011 Crystal Ball perform?

As the dust from hundreds of campervans heading north and triple the normal passengers at Wellington airport settles on Hutt Valley, it's time to evaluate how reality tackled my expectations of the RWC.


When my crystal ball came out of its box it was still stained with faint images of the 2005 Lions Tour.  The Top 10 Holiday Park over flowing with campervans for days and local bars filled with an army of British supporters doing their absolute best to drink the place dry.  But realigning the all seeing orb with the 2011 stars we could immediately see a different event was coming our way with the RWC.  RWC has more than four times the matches and 10 times the teams competing with the same multiples of visitors but it is simultaneously spread to the four corners of New Zealand.


So crystal ball, tell me, what should our little corner of New Zealand expect?

• busiest September and October to date but not to the levels of summer
• revenue up but not to the levels of summer
• accommodation full over game dates
• no need for long term campervan over flow

We can past post these RWC expectations but it's too early to put the crystal ball away just yet.


Busiest September & October
Well there's no doubt about it, September was the busiest on record.  International visitors through the Hutt City i-SITE Visitor Centre were 110% up on September last year and overall visitors were up 26%.  All great news but as expected these visitor numbers are still short of what we will see between the summer months of January and March.


October is still to fully deliver all its visitors but 1/3 into the month and the i-SITE is half way to last October's visitor volumes.  The rescheduling of school holidays should now fill in where the departing rugby crowds left off.


Revenue will be up
We didn't get carried away with forecasting September and October revenue too far up on normal levels for these months.  We expected September to be an extra month on the shoulder of Spring and again not to the levels of summer.  This sounded like a reasonable argument given the expected increase in visitors and having just achieved 17 straight months of record revenue through the i-SITE.


However these visitors had all pre-booked.  Months and years ago they had booked their accommodation, buses, trains and even activities.  The i-SITE team over the last three years had become a sales force and now, despite their best efforts, they were returning to be an information service.  September ended up being our third best and down 13% on the same month last year.


Now the crowds have left us we are already seeing a return to a likely record revenue October with school holiday traffic.


Accommodation will be full on game days
As expected, the game days did bring in the demand for accommodation.  However it was really only the double header quarter final weekend which totally filled the Hutt Valley.  On every other game day there were some rooms which could be found with a bit of digging.  But nobody is complaining.


No need for long term campervan overflow
There were three nights where the local campervan park over flowed into the streets but this was largely taken up by the Petone Rugby Club, Trentham Racecourse and foreshore car parks.


If there was one thing which did surprise me a bit, it was the volume of campervans.  Quarter final weekend in particular was busier with vans than expected.  Still the consultation with the Top 10 more than a year ago determined that we shouldn't bother with any overflow and given that it would only have been needed on a handful of nights, this appears to have been a good decision.


Don't put the crystal ball away just yet
What's going to happen next?

• has the RWC soaked up all the domestic travel for this year.  Those tickets were expensive and is that the money New Zealand families would have normally used on their annual summer holiday?
• will the excellent media coverage the Hutt Valley, Wellington and New Zealand received bring in more visitors this summer?
• the RWC was able to gain priority from visitors over the global financial crisis, unemployment and recessions but will our New Zealand summer be able to do the same?
• a busy September and October! Is this a story to leverage and extend the shoulder season for next year?
• who's going to win the RWC and is this a story to leverage for particular markets?

RWC has been brilliant but the impacts, positive and otherwise, have not yet fully played out on our tourism industry.  Yes it's definitely too early to put the crystal ball away just yet.



David Hancock is the visitor development manager for Hutt City, Wellington, New Zealand and would be delighted to receive comments on this or any other topic. http://www.huttvalleynz.com/
http://www.facebook.com/HuttCity.Wellington

Has Petone reached the tipping point?

I've read Malcolm Gladwell's book, The Tipping Point, and in the past few weeks I've been able to see exactly what he means when I think of the development of Petone's tourist accommodation sector.  At the risk of over simplifying the research of Malcolm Gladwell, the tipping point for a product is when something triggers a sudden and dramatic increase in interest and sales of the product.  Absolutely recommend getting yourself a copy; a great read!


Anyway, the tipping point in Petone appears to have been reached in terms of tourist accommodation development. 


Petone is the number one visitor attraction in the Hutt Valley, Wellington.  Jackson Street is the main retail, cafe, restaurant and gallery strip drawing thousands of people to its unique mile.  The Petone Settlers Museum on the waterfront tells the wonderful stories that make Petone and Wellington what it is today, and a walk along the waterfront with its long finger of wharf pointing at Wellington across the harbour is a must do.  Serving as bookends to the east and west of Petone are commercial zones which provide much of the employment and are a magnet for many business visitors.


Accommodation for this visitor draw card has been limited to a series of motels along the Petone foreshore and on Hutt Road up to 1km from Jackson Street.  Some of these motels are excellent and well deserved of four star Qualmark ratings.  These motels have continued to refurbish as they should but it's been many years since the youngest of these establishments signed off with the builders.


But over the past few months there has been a flurry of activity from developers.  Building consents officers have been kept busy at Hutt City Council with plans for no less than five new tourist accommodation developments crossing the table.  Petone Workingmens' Club is looking toward a 70 room hotel and conference rooms, Quest Apartments have approval for a new development on Jackson Street, the owners of Qualmark 5 star, enviro gold, Boulcott Lodge have broken ground in Cuba Street just around the corner and two new multi story developments have the go ahead on The Esplanade overlooking the harbour.


Again simplifying, but here's a theory for how this tipping point has come about.  Early to mid 1900s and Petone is a thriving service town for meatworks, rail yards and General Motors production plant; good times for Jackson Street and Petone.  As these businesses closed, the people departed and left behind wonderful 1930s architecture which would deteriorate over the coming decades.  No jobs, no people and the houses become cheap, low rent accommodation.  Cheap, low rent housing attracts students.  Students eventually make it trendy.  Trendy makes it popular.  Popular makes it more valuable and Petone is back on top again.


Petone businesses and tourist operators have been banging the drum for the past seven years about how special the place is and telling tourists to make their way out here.  All of a sudden in the past 8 months it appears the developers of tourist accommodation have heard the beat of those drums and they are coming.  I would love to have the time to delve into the finer details of what has brought about this tipping point, but that's not what they pay me for.  Never know, it might be worthy of a chapter in another Malcolm Gladwell book.


In 12 months I imagine my stories of Petone will be about not just coming for the day but coming and staying for a few nights.  Can't wait!



David Hancock is the visitor development manager for Hutt City, Wellington, New Zealand and would be delighted to receive comments on this or any other topic. http://www.huttvalleynz.com/
http://www.facebook.com/HuttCity.Wellington

Petone 2.0

The Christchurch earthquake, as it should, has stirred up questions of safety for buildings in some other cities.  The question is being asked of Petone's New Zealand Places Trust listed Jackson Street and the many heritage buildings which line this Hutt Valley icon.  The cost of earthquake strengthening a heritage building can be prohibitive and there is some thought now that buildings on Jackson Street will vanish under new development.  But the facades of Jackson Street really are only the surface.

Thousands of visitors including Wellingtonian's, international and domestic add to the atmosphere of Jackson Street and make it Hutt Valley's number one attraction.  A tour down Jackson Street will take you into the stories of the arrival of first settlers, Petone's industry hey day, start of the 40 hour week and of course some of the facades of the wonderful heritage buildings.

Jackson Street's facades are looking better than ever.  Simple paint jobs through to full makeovers of the buildings are adding to the attraction but this isn't what makes Jackson Street so popular.  The buildings have been on Jackson Street since the 1930's but the vibrancy and enthusiasm for the strip is relatively new.  This tells me that there is more to Jackson Street than history and buildings.

The vibrancy and enthusiasm comes from the people who tell the stories.  These people are behind the doors of the street.  They are tending to their unique little patch of retail, gallery and cafe.  It is these people that give the substance to Jackson Street's slogan of 'step inside a story, not just a store'.  If the facades do disappear and the physical heritage is gone, Petone will still be the number one place to visit because of the people.

I liked reading Petone Community Board member, Mason Branch's comments that Petone should prepare to 'build the most amazing new street'.  It's this sort of positive approach that will keep Petone alive and well as a great place to live and visit.

If you haven't been to Jackson Street, Petone yet then get it on your Must Do list and see what all the noise is about.

David Hancock is the visitor development manager for Hutt City, Wellington, New Zealand and would be delighted to receive comments on this or any other topic.
http://www.huttvalleynz.com/
http://www.facebook.com/HuttCity.Wellington

Pedalling regional collaboration

Five councils, two government departments, two regional tourism organisations, Maori and a myriad of interest groups are all collaborating to pull together a tourism product that will showcase the southernmost reaches of New Zealand's north island.

For more than 20 years, a group of dedicated residents have planned and lobbied, fund raised and manned the tools to develop cycle routes like the Hutt River Trail which stretches 28 kilometres up the Hutt Valley from Petone to Upper Hutt.  At the same time, other trails along the historic railway routes of Tunnel Gully and Rimutaka Incline have been developed for recreational cyclists and walkers.

Now a collective including the councils of Wellington, Hutt City, Upper Hutt, South Wairarapa and Greater Wellington, Department of Conservation and Ministry of Economic Development, Positively Wellington Tourism and Destination Wairarapa are working to link these already popular trails into a single marketable cycling product.

 Maori Bend on the Hutt River Trail

 Summit on Rimutaka Incline

 The last stage in Wairarapa - Lake Oneke

 Luxurious Wharekauhau, Wairarapa

Made it! Ocean Beach, Wairarapa

 

The cycle trail can already be ridden, with some small interruptions and a touch of local knowledge, from Petone on the shores of Wellington Harbour, up the Hutt Valley and over the Rimutaka Ranges to the Wairarapa wine country.  Tidying up the connections between the individual cycle trails to make the transition and navigation for visitors a seamless experience is what the collective is working hard to achieve.

There are bigger plans for the cycle trail after the core route is established but even now cyclists can take in an iconic part of the region's history with a not so challenging ride through spectacular scenery of harbour, river, mountains, lakes and the ocean of the rugged south coast.

The whole cycle trail can be done in 2-3 days but best of all there are shorter rides including day trips available.  I'm pleased to be leading the charge on this project and with all going to plan we should see this cycling experience up and running by next summer.

David Hancock is the visitor development manager for Hutt City, Wellington, New Zealand and would be delighted to receive comments on this or any other topic.
http://www.huttvalleynz.com/
http://www.facebook.com/HuttCity.Wellington

Marketing to this big rugby event

I will probably be tarred and feathered and run out of town for this post but as a satellite city marketer, I haven't bought into spending great amounts on additional marketing for the rugby world cup.

We will of course put up the street flags and get the retailers and schools and rugby clubs into the swing of it.  Holding the annual winter event a bit later to make the most of the larger numbers does make sense.  Buying into a touring rugby exhibition for the city is going to be good timing and also makes sense.  But as a satellite city I'm not convinced that any special RWC websites, magazines or visitor guides are going to be worth the exorbitant prices being quoted.

Don't get me wrong, I think RWC will be fantastic for New Zealand.  It is exciting for the country hosting an international event that will draw visitors from every corner of the world to see every corner of New Zealand.  Big parts of the community will be engaged as spectators at games or through meeting their rugby heroes at school or civic engagements.  It will no doubt be the busiest spring we have ever had and our accommodation will be full several times during the event.

I get it that communities throughout the country have to invest in infrastructure upgrades; it's an international event and we need to present ourselves as a world class destination worthy of being the host.  The legacy from this investment no doubt stacks up with the ongoing benefits of improved sports grounds and transport systems being available for the rate paying communities for years to come.

I get it that the major cities need to invest in big promotions and make it the party to end all parties.  After all the event is really a massive festival and we need the energy of the people to come out in a positive and profitable way.

But as a satellite city marketer, I then get stuck when it comes to the great amounts of extra money being spent on special RWC marketing.  There won't be a game played at our local stadium, there won't be any teams staying in our hotels or even coming out to see the public.  The public and visitors will be travelling into the major city venues to see the games but after they have their rugby fix, they will have other interests like any other visitor.

I can't help but see these RWC visitors as just that - 'visitors'.  We have visitors every day of the year.  In fact from forecasts, we have more visitors in any given summer than we will have for the RWC.  Our accommodation is often full from visitors to events like the Rugby 7's or the World of Wearable Art or Visa Wellington on a Plate.  Visitors to these events find us through the same marketing material as any other visitor and I believe that RWC visitors will pick up the same marketing material and look at the same websites and visit the same i-SITEs as any other visitor.

David Hancock is the visitor development manager for Hutt City, Wellington, New Zealand and would be delighted to receive comments on this or any other topic.
http://www.huttvalleynz.com/
http://www.facebook.com/HuttCity.Wellington

New Zealand - more examples of visitors who still have it on the go now list!

Visitors keep rolling through New Zealand and many still plan to keep Christchurch on their itineraries; the staff at Hutt City i-SITE Visitor Centre are capturing their stories.  Continuing with the BLOG4NZ theme, here are some places in Hutt Valley, Wellington which are definitely OPEN and a few more glimpses at visitors keeping New Zealand on their must do now list.

The Dowse Art Museum is up there with the best contemporary galleries in New Zealand.  The team at the Dowse want you to know that New Zealand is definitely OPEN!

The size of this group at Staglands Wildlife Reserve would suggest that yes they are very much OPEN!  Love the pig wandering across the front.

Gundega and Laurent from Belgium had planned to stay in Christchurch but have decided to spend more time in other places around New Zealand now.

Sophie, Aglae and Valerie from Quebec, Canada are heading to the South Island and still plan to visit Christchurch.  Look out down south!

Robert and Camille (she was too shy for the photo) from USA are enjoying their New Zealand experience but haven't decided yet if they will still go to Christchurch.  If not, they'll just spend the time somewhere else in New Zealand.  Good to know there are options!

Yes New Zealand is definitely OPEN!

David Hancock is the visitor development manager for Hutt City, Wellington, New Zealand and would be delighted to receive comments on this or any other topic.

http://www.huttvalleynz.com/

http://www.facebook.com/HuttCity.Wellington

New Zealand - examples of visitors who still have it on the go now list!

Christchurch's earthquake has hit hard and there's no doubt that it is New Zealand's earthquake.  Personally, I have family in Christchurch with a house that will have to come down.  Everybody knows somebody who has been severely affected and this would be as far as any New Zealander could be removed from the tragedy.  New Zealanders have pulled together from being at the coalface in rescue mode through to helping to raise funds.  While I type I'm wearing my red & black Canterbury colours to at least show Christchurch remains front of mind.


Christchurch does have to be rebuilt and the country's wheels need to keep turning.  And those wheels are turning all over New Zealand.  So to help spread that message I've decided to bring together the Hutt Valley, Wellington snippets we've been sending out from Hutt City i-SITE Visitor Centre, saying that New Zealand is OPEN!

Hope you enjoy this little BLOG4NZ!



Hutt City i-SITE Visitor Centre
Information and bookings for the whole country including Christchurch


Thanks Jaimee, Pai and Linda!

This American couple from Oregon took the opportunity to hire some bikes for the day (17 March) from the i-SITE and ride the Hutt River Trail.  Biking through the Hutt Valley is one of those must do things.

The earthquake hasn't changed the plans for the Myers finishing their travels to Taupo and Napier on the north island and then heading to the south island to Kaikoura, Geraldine and Lake Tekapo via Christchurch.

Two German couples just dropped past in their campervans. They'd flown into Christchurch, travelled to Mount Cook then took two weeks travelling up the south island doing plenty of hiking.  They arrived on the ferry to Wellington today (18 March) and will be travelling the north island for another two weeks.


The earthquake hasn't affected the travel plans for Erika & Hans-Jors Pfleiderer or Traudl & Konny Hofinger.

David Hancock is the visitor development manager for Hutt City, Wellington, New Zealand and would be delighted to receive comments on this or any other topic.

http://www.huttvalleynz.com/

http://www.facebook.com/HuttCity.Wellington

The stories that would have had me buying

I've just returned from an excellent holiday in the south island of New Zealand.  'The best ever', but my kids laugh that I always crown our latest holiday as 'best ever'.  From that holiday I was reminded by my last post on the importance of stories.

Two encounters with 'sales' people from that holiday have stuck in my mind.  On one occassion I was asking to hear a story but my 'sales' person hadn't been taught how, and the other, a story I really didn't ask for ended up being one I would rather I didn't hear.


The family holiday took us down the west coast of the south island, truly one of the great drives in New Zealand.  We are always on the lookout for great food opportunities when travelling and so we were easily lured into the Hokitika cheese shop.  Not disappointed by the range of cheese or the presentation I asked our young 'sales' assistant if she had a chance to learn about the cheeses.  She explained to me that she had learnt about the cheeses but had since forgotten what she'd learnt.

Not put off by this and in pursuit of some enhancement to my knowledge of cheese and perhaps a pointer for the right cheese for me to purchase, I pushed on.  'Which is your favourite cheese?', I asked.  I was then told that she doesn't really like cheese.

So it turns out the 'sales' assistant was instead an 'order taker'.  This could be easily turned aorund with a refresher in the cheeses and where they're from and a bit of knowledge about their character and what they might go well with.

Even non-cheese eaters can have some tactics for telling a story about favourite cheeses even if they don't have one.  My 'order taker' could have told me that [while she doesn't personally have a favourite] 'the most popular cheese would have to be...and many people enjoy it with...'


At the very end of our holiday we were in the beautiful port town of Picton waiting for our ferry back to the north island.  Wandering through the shops looking for that last souvenir, we entered a store where there was an empty chip packet laying on the floor which our 'sales' assistant' hadn't seen from the safety of her counter.  I picked it up and handed it to her saying it must have blown in.  The 'sales' assistant obviously saw this as her time to launch into a story about the poor performance of the council and their upkeep of the steets.  'Thank you' would have done me.  So it turns out this 'sales' assistant was actually a store 'monitor', not even an 'order taker'.

Afterwards I couldn't help thinking about the conversation we could have had with any number of 'store monitors' in Picton.  What a golden opportunity to engage with customers.  Tourists are half way through, just starting or just finishing their holidays.  They're about to go or have just come off one of the most wonderful ferry trips in the world.  Whatever the stage of a tourist's travels there are great conversations to be had in Picton.  These conversations if probed and guided and engaged well enough will lead to sales.


Real conversations and stories are working for us at the Hutt City i-SITE Visitor Centre.  Following on from my post 'customers down, revenue up' we have now recorded eleven consecutive months of record revenue.

David Hancock is the visitor development manager for Hutt City, Wellington, New Zealand and would be delighted to receive comments on this or any other topic.
http://www.huttvalleynz.com/
http://www.facebook.com/HuttCity.Wellington

The stories we tell

In a December post (Helping visitors to find their way) I mentioned a project I was working on; wayfinding and story telling.  I covered the wayfinding side of things in that post and thought I would cover story telling today.  I won't discuss the project though as it's commercially sensitive at this stage - that's right!  We take story telling very seriously.


Stories are playing a big part in the success of the Hutt City i-SITE Visitor Centre which comes as one of my charges.  Measures of success at the i-SITE are up just about everywhere we look.  Sales and customer service training have been important but the biggest component of that training has been in getting staff to tell stories; their stories.

Stories are a vital part of what makes people, people. Stories through drawings, music, dance, film, art, text, oral and any number of other media have been part of who people are since man took his very first steps.  Have a think about your day today and you will have told and heard dozens of stories.  Stories can be as short as a few words or they can be never ending. 

Without stories we do not have direction or role models or learning.  Without stories we do not have a past or a future.  Stories determine where we have come from, where we are going and who we are.  Stories are as important to the fabric of our existence as the air we breathe and the food and nourishment we consume.

The stories of any town are important for the community to be aware of and to retell those stories to which they have an emotional attachment.  These stories help develop pride and promotion of the community to others within and beyond the community.

The stories that make up the fabric of Hutt City, contribute beyond the boundaries of the city.  The stories of Hutt City’s fabric contribute to a vast patchwork which includes the fabric of the region, the nation and the world.  Giving the stories of Hutt City a regional, national and global context adds to the pride and promotion of the community.

Back at a business results level; our staff are encouraged to tell their stories and others they have heard to give the customers feelings and not just facts for a product.  Customers recall their own stories or use those of our staff to add to their inventory of information in the decision making process.  The stories our staff tell give context to decisions our customers make by giving them an emotional attachment to a product.  A decision to buy, or attend, or do anything, or not, will only be made once customers have an emotional connection and that emotional connection will come from a story.

David Hancock is the visitor development manager for Hutt City, Wellington, New Zealand and would be delighted to receive comments on this or any other topic.
http://www.huttvalleynz.com/
http://www.facebook.com/HuttCity.Wellington

Infectious Characters

It's not a coincidence that most of the businesses I deal with are owned by people with high energy and a positive approach to everything they do.  Sure I prefer to work with this type of person as good results are more likely to be at the other end of my efforts.  At the same time I get the feeling I'm working with them because their energy has drawn me in rather than me seeking them out.

There are many of these characters in Hutt City and every town has them.  They're the people who love what they do, with the energy to do it.  They have total respect for their customers and it's obvious in how they deal with them.  They can all tell a story and you can't help but want to listen.  They are positive and forever pushing forward rather than continuously looking backward wondering what happened and blaming someone else for it.


It's not a coincidence that a thriving visitor attraction like Jackson Street, Petone has so many of this type of character.  I don't need to shamelessly list these outstanding businesses here.  I bet that you could walk down that street and at the other end peel off which shops are owned by one of these amazing characters.

You'd know them because their staff or they personally will have talked to you because they want to.  They will have looked like they really want to be there and want you to be there too.  You will have heard a story even if it's just a short one that gives a bit more information about a product than you would otherwise expect to know.


I like to think that these characters are infectious.  I believe their energy and passion can be passed on to others.  But negativity, backward looking and blame casting serve as powerful immunisation.  To become infected a person must want to catch the bug, have willingness and an open mind for change and draw on their own positive energy; it is in there.

David Hancock is the visitor development manager for Hutt City, Wellington, New Zealand and would be delighted to receive comments on this or any other topic.
http://www.huttvalleynz.com/
http://www.facebook.com/HuttCity.Wellington