Rugby College: English team studies NZ"s 2011 RWC

Monday, 24 June 2013

English team studies NZ"s 2011 RWC

Giant rugby screen

HOW IT’S DONE: Rugby fans watch a giant screen during a match at the Twickenham Stadium in London. The stadium, which has a capacity of 82,000, is scheduled to host the next Rugby World Cup final on October 31, 2015.

Nearly seven months after the All Blacks were taught a rugby lesson by England at Twickenham, New Zealand has been asked to share a few lessons about hosting a Rugby World Cup – and maybe even winning one.

Last week, two representatives from England’s national tourism board, VisitEngland, came to New Zealand on a fact-finding mission in the wake of the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

England’s tourism agency is working closely with tournament organiser England Rugby 2015 on the competition, to be hosted by 10 cities including Cardiff in Wales.

VisitEngland marketing director Alex Mawer said they wanted to understand how tourism could best benefit from hosting the Rugby World Cup in 2015, four years after New Zealand hosted the same tournament.

“I think we knew that it was a fantastic success and talking to the IRB [International Rugby Board] and the other partners involved, we know that it was a successful tournament,” Mawer said.

“For us it’s been really about ensuring we understand and unpack some of their experience.”

In Wellington and Auckland the party met with tourism and World Cup partners including Tourism NZ, the New Zealand Rugby Union and former Rugby World Cup chief executive Martin Snedden, who now heads the Tourism Industry Association of New Zealand.

According to Statistics New Zealand, 133,200 people came to New Zealand specifically for the tournament in 2011.

It was hosted over six weeks between September and October, 2011, and the average spend of visitors was about $3400, for total spending of $387 million.

Mawer said VisitEngland, which was also involved with the 2012 London Olympics, was impressed by New Zealand’s attention to detail.

“The planning they took into it was some of the best event planning I’ve seen,” he said.

Rugby World Cup 2015 project director Jeremy Brinkworth said between two and three million tickets were likely to be sold for the England event. At New Zealand’s 2011 tournament, 1.35 million tickets were bought, which generated revenues of $266m.

Brinkworth said there would be no government investment in England’s World Cup, unlike when the competition was hosted in New Zealand.

“The government’s underwriting the tournament to a certain degree but that’s not the same as investing in it, that’s just a backstop. Hopefully that won’t be called upon.”

The 2011 tournament recorded a budgeted $40m loss for the New Zealand Rugby Union and taxpayers.

Furthermore, $350m was spent upgrading stadiums and providing IRB-approved facilities around the country.

Mawer said that with games being separated by up to a week, the potential for tourism in between was crucial.

“People will come and stay for a couple of weeks potentially, perhaps longer, and they’ll need things to do – for tourism it’s of real value to us.

“I think what’s most important for us is to unpack the successes and the problems that there were when people came across and really how they timelined the whole tournament.”

The organisers said 400,000 to 500,000 tickets would be sold internationally, from which Brinkworth expected a visible New Zealand presence.

London’s Twickenham stadium, with a capacity of 82,000, was scheduled to host the final on Saturday, October 31, 2015, he said.

“Whether England are in it, of course, is a different matter.”