Latest news with #WheelsatWānaka
Otago Daily Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Tourist season extending
Wānaka's shoulder season is shrinking, as visitor numbers hold steady 12 months a year, according to visitor data. The region's rapid tourism growth is undeniable and, in addition to its growth, Wānaka is experiencing a gradual shift in its peak days too. Many outside the region regard the town as a winter destination, but operators say summer has risen in popularity and visitors are now making the most of off-peak seasons as well. Destination Queenstown chief executive Matt Woods said Wānaka had been seeing steady tourism from about mid-June through till mid-April, making the shoulder season next to non-existent. Last year and this year, the twilight zone was between December and March, during which there were about 94,000 to 140,000 commercial guest stays. The rest of last year had stable numbers ranging from about 53,000 to 70,000 guests per month, except for May and June with just over 35,000 guests each. Hospitality businesses in Wānaka have felt the impact of this shift. Te Wānaka Lodge co-owner Mandy Enoka said in the 17 years she had been in the industry, summer was a busy season, but it had grown over the years. "We've had a really busy market. I think summer has extended slowly," she said. " ... So we're now busy from November through until, like, the first of May." Before Covid-19, the summer season would run from mid-December to mid-March, she estimated. As the very peak of the summer season was at Christmas and New Year, some visitors were pushing their check-in dates in order to skip the high prices, Ms Enoka said. However, the winter season was not experiencing the same visitor increase that the summer was. While occupancy rates for the lodge used to be roughly 85% during the July school holidays, they were now sitting at 60%, and one of the most significant contributors was the late snowfall, she said. "I think they're not necessarily wanting to commit to travelling to Wānaka when potentially the snow isn't as good." Archway Motels and Chalets manager Mark Hamilton also said the summer had been a busy time, particularly with events such as Warbirds over Wānaka and Wheels at Wānaka. The high number of visitors made Mr Hamilton feel the town could not handle the tourism industry it had been bolstering. "Summer is definitely crazy. I mean, Wānaka has always been popular and now we have the R&A concert in the valley, which adds to the nightmare. "It's like, Wānaka's really struggling, capacity-wise, which pushes your prices up, of course ... The shoulder season really hasn't eventuated," he said. The winter saw fewer visitors who stayed longer, whereas the summer had more people coming for shorter periods. Deputy mayor Quentin Smith said the growing peak seasons had become something to seriously consider when looking at future development. "It's really hard to manage the infrastructure for the peaks, depending on who's riding, electricity, sewage, all of the above," he said. Building more infrastructure was only one part of the solution. The focus also had to be on regenerative tourism, where sustainability was encouraged. Mr Woods shared a similar opinion, pointing out that high visitor numbers needed to be considered hand in hand with resident population growth. The demand projection from the Queenstown Lakes District Council, released in May of this year, showed the projected resident population in 2025 was 54,440, with visitor numbers on peak days averaging 68,050 people. Looking ahead to 2035, the resident population was projected to hit 69,405 in the district and visitors on peak day to be 86,756. Mr Woods said the growth in resident and visitor numbers meant it was necessary to look at adding more infrastructure that could be used by all those living in or visiting the district. It was also important to look at the regenerative tourism strategy in the destination management plan, which aimed to make tourism sustainable for everyone in the region, he said.
Otago Daily Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Wānaka developer aiming to bring ‘world-class' concert venue to town
Three Parks will host the former Gibbston Valley Winery concert. PHOTO: SUPPLIED Wānaka developer Allan Dippie wants to bring a "world-class" concert venue to town, when Three Parks hosts the former Gibbston Valley Winery concert. Last week, Greenstone Entertainment announced the concert was on the move and due to grow, after its 15-year stint at Gibbston Valley Station. It was confirmed that Willowridge director Mr Dippie had raised his hand for the prize and plans to expand the former 15,000 crowd to a capacity of 30,000. "I have personally received a huge amount of positive feedback and support from Wānaka locals since the announcement last week that the Greenstone summer concerts are moving to the Three Parks Outdoor Arena in Wānaka," he said. "The community is very excited at the prospect of the town hosting the concerts and everywhere I've been around the town I'm getting a great reaction to the news." Initially rumoured to be looking at Robrosa Station, between Queenstown and Wānaka — the site of the annual Rhythm & Alps gig — Greenstone confirmed the 60ha Three Parks Outdoor Arena in Wānaka. Three Parks is hoping to get fast-track approval for about 900 new homes, a commercial area and potentially a school on its land, meaning areas, including for carparking, may not be available in future years for concerts of this scale. Greenstone Entertainment chief executive Amanda Calvert said they chose Wānaka as they wished to stay in the area, where the concert had success. "We are very fortunate to have found a fantastic supporter in Wānaka local Allan Dippie whose knowledge and connections have been invaluable." Under the existing consent, up to 18,000 are permitted at the site. About 14,000 people attended this year's concert in January, featuring Everclear, Bic Runga, Icehouse and Cold Chisel. Greenstone's application sought land use consent to hold up to three one-day events a year for the next five years, with a maximum of 30,000 attending. Mr Dippie said the venue could become world class and entice more artists. Three Parks hosted Wheels at Wānaka four times, reeling in over 60,000 people to its final show in March. "From Willowridge's point of view, it's our job to create a world-class venue at Three Parks and to provide the best atmosphere and concert experience at the venue as possible. "It will be important to create a venue that quickly gets an artist's reputation for excellence and that concert-goers love as well. We will be putting everything into creating something world class in terms of a unique outdoor concert setting." He confirmed some proceeds would go back into the Upper Clutha community, as they had with Wheels at Wānaka. "We are also doing this for the Upper Clutha community; it's not only a chance for locals to enjoy the concerts and local businesses to benefit from them but we will also be putting money back into a diverse range of community groups and initiatives". The 2026 event is pegged to employ more than 200 locals. Buses will be provided from Queenstown, Arrowtown and Cromwell to reduce traffic disruption and volume on the roads. According to the application, the proposal will result in a "less than minor effect on the surrounding roading network". The Wheels at Wānaka event attracted criticism from some members of the public and councillors as the roads were jammed with traffic over the long Easter weekend. Full dates for the 2026 Greenstone Summer Concert tour will be announced soon, with the full artist line-up to be confirmed shortly after.
Otago Daily Times
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
‘Brand new' event coming next year
Despite having to justify the Easter influx of 65,000 visitors, Wheels at Wānaka general manager Allan Dippie intends to bring to town another event in 2026. In April, Wheels at Wānaka brought in its biggest crowd and Wānaka's biggest crowd in one day to an event, with 50,000 visitors on the Saturday of the long weekend. The flood of people to town meant roads were blocked and some inconvenienced locals took to Facebook pages airing their concerns about traffic lines. While some locals complained about being held up, the event brought in millions to the local economy and businesses across town reeled in record sales. Still, post-event, the Queenstown Lakes District Council approached Mr Dippie to explain why the event exceeded the predicted numbers and why nothing was done about limiting those coming to the event. The event caused extreme traffic congestion on Wānaka roads during the long weekend, which upset some locals, despite the event being announced two years in advance. Mr Dippie and his events team had predicted about 45,000, going by previous years. "There has been a bit of a discussion about Wheels at Wānaka from the council. "Since the event, council sent us a 'please explain' email and started getting a bit toey about things and threatening possible enforcement action. I think one of the local councillors might have been the driving force behind the email." This is in reference to Wānaka councillor and deputy mayor Quentin Smith, who has been vocal about traffic congestion around the show. Mr Dippie wrote back to the council, explaining that the wet weather forecast over Easter had meant much of the crowd showed up to the Saturday event, and so crowds were not evenly spread. The event did not account for the huge number of children with their parents, he said. "They wanted to know how we were planning on stopping so many coming, which is kind of not possible with a family event of this nature. "We had over 50,000 people in one day, which has never been seen in Wānaka before and probably not likely to be seen again for a long time. "People were being rarked up on Facebook by one of the local councillors," he said. While Mr Dippie has taken an apologetic approach to the traffic issues, he is also very pleased with how the event turned out and has labelled it a huge success. "I think council might be out of step with people at times but in general events are great things and the community welcomes them." He said most of the businesses he spoke to in town had broken record sales over the Easter weekend. The council accepted Mr Dippie's explanation and will not be taking matters any further with any sort of prosecution or investigation. A spokesperson said the event was a welcome boost to local hospitality and retail businesses. "Wheels at Wānaka in particular attracted many people to town. We're certainly aware of the heavy traffic which caused disruption in the township and roads leading into it at peak times. Wheels at Wānaka's organisers confirmed beforehand that this would be their last event. "In general, council considers the requirements of all events regarding their demand for services and potential impact on local infrastructure such as roading as part of each resource consent application." The council added that Warbirds Over Wānaka, which is held every second Easter, was likely to attract the same number of people next year, but its location at the Wānaka airport would mean less inconvenience in town. "Events of all sizes continue to be important economic drivers for the Upper Clutha and our district as a whole." The Wheels at Wānaka event is run by the Wheels at Wānaka Charitable Trust and donates its surplus back into the community each year, across several community focused groups. The trust would be announcing the recipients later this month and at this stage things were looking very positive for record community donations, Mr Dippie said. "You can imagine the trust getting fined by the QLDC and incurring legal costs would have would not have gone down so well, so I'm glad common sense has prevailed." Mr Dippie confirmed he was in the early planning stages of a 2026 event for the town but was tight-lipped about what that would be. "We are not easily put off and I do encourage council to not put others off and actually encourage events. You don't want to be the council that makes it hard for events. "We will be announcing a future event but a different type of event. The community should be standing by for something brand new, next year, another event, 2026. "We always said we would try to do new and different things."
Otago Daily Times
11-05-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Ideas for asset fund sought
The Wānaka Upper Clutha Community Board is calling for bold ideas from the community on how to spend over $4 million in asset funds. The board had its monthly meeting on Thursday and began discussing what the community plans to do with its asset funds. Ideas and issues around event management, traffic control, transport and social infrastructure were brought forward by both board members and local organisations. The asset sales reserve is currently about $4 million but is expected to grow substantially once the board sells land in Ironside Dr. Improving event management was a key topic, especially following the success of Wheels at Wānaka. The event held over Easter weekend brought record numbers of visitors to Wanaka as it sold over 60,000 tickets, causing severe traffic congestion. Board member Linda Joll voiced her concern that traffic management was unable to accommodate the growth of events in the region. "I felt like there was no traffic management plan or a very inadequate one," she said. Oliver Harcus, spokesman for pride group Out and About, spoke during the public forum and further expressed the need to improve event capacity in Wānaka. Mr Harcus focused on the increasingly limited capacity of the Lake Wānaka Centre, saying the building was a better fit for meetings rather than events. "Is this an attractive place to hold an event?" he said. He used the Festival of Colour as an example, saying it would have been hard for the festival to make money as its ticket sales were limited by the building's capacity of about 500 people. Mr Harcus also argued the building did not reflect the diversity of the town nor was it adequately accessible for someone with a disability. Queenstown Lakes District Council arts and events relationship manager Jan Maxwell said the region held more events than any other district of the same size. "We're not matching that need ... I do know it has its limitations," she said. Ms Maxwell, alongside a team from the council, presented a draft of the event policy review which promised to work on streamlining event services. This would include a single point of entry for anyone wishing to book a space for an event. Chairman Simon Telfer said the board was encouraging bold and large ideas that would be valuable to the community. He said this could include a new performance arts centre, potentially a sports fields and an artificial turf. Aside from event management social infrastructure, the board also heard from Electrify Wānaka, a local group advocating for the town to be powered by electricity rather than gas or petrol. The final recommendation on what to spend the asset fund on will be shared with the council in November while discussing the region's long-term plan.
