{"id":21338,"date":"2025-09-14T05:58:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T05:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/21338\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T05:58:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T05:58:06","slug":"government-aims-to-attract-major-events-announces-70m-package","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/21338\/","title":{"rendered":"Government aims to attract major events, announces $70m package"},"content":{"rendered":"

This fund will be paid for by taxpayers and is currently a one-off. The Government has come under pressure from Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown to allow Auckland to bring in a bed night levy<\/a> on visitors, which would raise funds to pay for attracting major events.<\/p>\n

The $70m injection comprises $40m to attract \u201clarge-scale international events from 2026\u201d and a $10m \u201cEvents Boost Fund\u201d to support existing events and attract international opportunities.<\/p>\n

There is also a $10m regional tourism campaign to attract more international visitors and a $10m fund to upgrade tourism infrastructure including cycle trails.<\/p>\n

\u201cMajor events boost regional economies and give Kiwis and overseas visitors something to anticipate and celebrate,\u201d Upston said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis $70 million events and tourism investment package is about energising the events sector,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Of that, about $45m is new funding, $25 is existing funding that has been repurposed.<\/p>\n

She said that level of funding puts New Zealand on a par with Queensland.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s announcement is also significant for local communities and local government. Communities up and down New Zealand benefit hugely from events, and it\u2019s important that local government is also involved in supporting activity in their regions with resources, in cash or in kind,\u201d Upston said.<\/p>\n

Auckland Business Chamber CEO Simon Bridges welcomed the investment. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvents are an important driver of jobs and growth for Auckland\u2019s regional economy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey bring in people from across New Zealand and overseas who spend and contribute in ways that simply wouldn\u2019t have happened otherwise. Our bars, cafes, restaurants, retail, and accommodation providers all benefit and all badly need this stimulus in our city,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Bridges said the announcement showed the Government could help the city without a bed levy.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs today\u2019s decision shows, direct investment from Wellington can do the trick. The package will also provide for regional tourism promotion and even infrastructure upgrades, which makes it a very positive step forward for Auckland and New Zealand as a whole,\u201d Bridges said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This fund will be paid for by taxpayers and is currently a one-off. The Government has come under…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22366,4886,696,694,22365,3685,266,661,1132,130,111,43,139,69,22367,61,80],"class_list":["post-21338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-70m","tag-aims","tag-announced","tag-announces","tag-attract","tag-events","tag-government","tag-major","tag-million","tag-more","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-package","tag-to","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}