15 million reasons for capital to cling to the sevens

By NICK CHURCHOUSE The Dominion Post | Tuesday, 9 Feb 2010

Keeping the NZI Sevens in Wellington is the $15 million question, with at least that much taken in the capital's tills at the weekend.

Holiday Inn general manager Heather Idoine-Riley said the weekend had topped all previous sevens tournaments. "It was a $250,000 weekend, that's triple a normal weekend."

But she said that, more importantly, the city was getting it right. "The hospitality operators did us proud, from the smallest cafe to the biggest hotel."

Turning the Featherston St hotel into a sevens hub catered for an in-house crowd that included 180 from sponsor NZI and large groups from Waikato and Auckland.

"We shut the restaurant down because people just want burgers, sausages and drinks. All the staff were in wigs, we had financial controllers selling pies."

Visitors were "blown away", she said. "They all admitted they could not do it [in their cities]. They walk out of the stadium and they are immediately in a place with bathrooms, water, coffee and drinks."

Positively Wellington Tourism chief executive David Perks said the numbers shifted every year toward more out-of-town visitors coming for the tournament.

"This event has built up a reputation for being a great Wellington weekend. Two days of fantastic weather did it no harm. You couldn't fault it really, they get better every year."

Last year 54 per cent of the stadium audience were from outside Wellington, with a total of 45,000 people travelling into the city for the weekend.

The average attendee was in his or her early 40s, Mr Perks said, which meant it was a lucrative weekend for businesses. Previous years had indicated the overall benefit was more than $15m.