A destination needs to constantly develop new recipes to feed consumers hunger for something new. If we don’t, as the recent cultural capital ‘debate’ has shown, there is always somewhere else waiting in the wings wanting to be the next you.

You’d be hard pressed to find more passionate Wellingtonians than those who occupy the Positively Wellington Tourism office. But to earn friends and maintain our old ones, we must constantly view Wellington with a critical eye to ensure we continue to attract both new and seasoned visitors. Our destination can never be considered ‘perfect’ – we must always aim to improve.

The ‘events capital’ model has been an incredible success story for Wellington. We need to continually develop our iconic events and find new and exciting ones to keep drawing visitors back. If we don’t, Wellington risks becoming stagnant and losing its competitive edge. As the business community works against a recession, sponsorship dollars are drying up. This is a major risk to the events industry and wider community. Wellington’s events capital reputation contributes to the innovative and creative reputation we all enjoy and benefit from. It also helps us attract and retain good staff.

As well as the importance of events as tourism ‘products’, Wellington has long identified its need to increase its stock of commissionable product in order to maximise our trade relationships. Tremendous headway has been made, with Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and ZEALANDIA: The Karori Sanctuary Experience two examples of world class products in their field. But we need more. The harbour and film industry are two major opportunities for the development of further iconic Wellington tourism experiences.

The quantum leaps that Wellington city has made have been fuelled by bold infrastructural investment: Te Papa, Westpac Stadium, Oriental Bay Beach, and the regeneration of Courtenay Place to name a few. These big decisions are absolutely, positively what has moved Wellington to where it is today. Now we need to be looking for the next opportunity.

In our opinion, the following should be top priority:

1. Inner city campervan facility

This is critical not only for the Rugby World Cup in 2011, but as a long-term asset for our city’s accommodation bank. Globally we are seeing major change in the perception of Wellington, but we need to meet the needs of free independent travellers if we are to convert that awareness and interest into longer stays.

2. Purpose-built convention and events centre
A large conference facility continues to be a gap for our city; and many major acts skip the cultural capital due to our lack of appropriate indoor events centre. This has got to change.

3. Australian consumer campaign

We’ve won over New Zealanders, now it’s time to work on our neighbours. Wellington needs to be at front of mind of Australians planning a New Zealand holiday and we want to inspire them to see our city as a long weekend break in the way we view the likes of Sydney and Melbourne.

Whatever we do, it must be ‘Wellington-ised’. Whether it be an event, a new product, an infrastructural development, or a campaign; it must be creative, innovative and enforce our place as the country’s cultural capital.

• At the end of 2008, Positively Wellington Tourism released the Wellington Visitor Strategy 2015 which maps out how Wellington can get the world to recognise it as the ‘Best Little Capital in the World’ by 2015. Download a copy at www.WellingtonNZ.com/strategy