Te Pae Christchurch exceeds performance expectations in its first year

Te Pae Christchurch

Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre has well surpassed performance benchmarks in its first year of operation, and is scoring goals for its sustainability practices along the way.

The Centre has just celebrated its first anniversary, revealing to TTGmice that it outperformed its initial projections by about 50 per cent.

Te Pae Christchurch

“It’s way better than we ever thought it was going to be and it was probably due to a combination of factors,” said its general manager Ross Steele.

“Covid compressed the years and postponed some events, and we’re still seeing some of that flow through for next year. But generally, I think there’s been a real pent-up demand for Christchurch which is starting to pay dividends now,” he added.

Steele also attributed the centre’s success to its strategy of procuring local suppliers, which means the convention centre is “doing exactly what it should be doing, (which is) driving economic value to the city”.

He said: “You can see the difference now that (the return of business is) making to some of our suppliers and even to some of the enterprises in and around us, who are taking on additional staff because of the (increased) business.

Domestic airline operations are also back at capacity, while international routes are now at about 80 per cent of pre-Covid levels. New routes from America and Asia are also coming online, in a show of confidence for Christchurch’s return to the international meetings circuit.

Te Pae Christchurch is also measuring its environmental impact as the first international standard convention centre to open in New Zealand ahead of Tākina Wellington and New Zealand International Convention Centre. Carbon consumption is being tracked to establish offset targets, which will also provide the centre the data it needs for its goal of reducing carbon use in following years, among other sustainable practices.

The Centre has just been re-certified the top gold status during this year’s Qualmark Sustainable Tourism Business Award review, improving on its inaugural evaluation across 26 criteria. It did significantly well in the economic and environment and culture categories, and also performed well in the areas of workplace culture, community and industry engagement.

Steele said it was also timely that recertification was awarded during TRENZ 2023, the country’s most significant international B2B travel trade event which was hosted recently at Te Pae Christchurch.

The Centre has hosted 234 events for more than 129,700 delegates since May 2, 2022, generating more than an estimated NZ$50 million (US$31.1 million) in direct economic value for the city of Ōtautahi Christchurch during that period.

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