Is WOW Wellington’s last bastion of hope?
Friday, 22 September 2023
Expectations and hopes are high for the capital’s languishing hospitality industry ahead of the opening night of the World of WearableArt fashion-meets-art extravaganza that takes over the city for the next 2½ weeks, starting today.
Off the back of an extraordinarily quiet year of diner patronage save for patchy but somewhat dispiriting spending spikes brought by visitors from the FIFA Women’s World Cup, Wellington On a Plate, Beervana and Wicked, businesses were on a knife edge, said Matt McLaughlin, a capital bar owner and former Hospitality NZ regional branch president.
Cafes, restaurants and bars were counting on the spectacle at the TSB Arena to break the dry spell. “It’s just so quiet, it’s unbelievable,” McLaughlin said, adding the city’s night economy was nowhere near what it used to be. “We’re hoping and praying to see a good amount of flow-on.”
The looming election, pervasive working from home among the public service and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis had created a maelstrom of uncertainty which had engulfed Wellington’s businesses and meant people weren’t spending what they would normally.
Ahead of summer and several smaller festivals including the Wellington Jazz Festival, Heritage Week and Verb Wellington to be held over the coming months, WOW is one of the last major events before Christmas turns the city into a ghost town and the NZ Festival of the Arts takes over come February.
But there is light at the end of the tunnel – as of this week more than 50,000 WOW tickets had been sold, which was tracking ahead of the 2019 show. Ticket sales cannot be compared to last year’s bumper season as 18,500 buyers transferred their tickets from the cancelled 2020 and 2021 shows.
There would be a surge in demand as the show opened, said Meg Williams, WOW’s new chief executive. “When it is WOW time in Wellington you can feel it on the streets … The WOW sign is up, the flags are flying, the city is lit, and the accommodation providers, retailers and eateries are ready … the hype just builds and builds.”
WOW is New Zealand’s largest theatrical spectacle and this year there are 19 performances, with a total audience of about 67,000 people. One extra show has been added for people to see the designs of more than 120 finalists from 23 countries.
Hotels are filling up - but there wasn’t the usual demand, said James Doolan, strategic director at the Hotel Council Aotearoa. Raman Sarin from Wellington’s Hilton and Sebel hotels and Lower Hutt’s new Sebel said almost all weekends and up to 90% of week nights had been sold for the season, and Jeremy Smith from the Trinity this week said bookings were tracking fairly well. But Smith also felt the show’s build up had been “muted” this year. “There doesn’t seem to be the hype that we normally get around WOW.”
While restaurants and bars were putting on pre-show dinners, special menus and limited cocktails, and as retail businesses erected window displays, it had been a somewhat “quiet” lead in, but Smith hoped that would change come today.
WOW audiences would be a welcome addition to the city amid the tough economic headwinds, said Chris Wilkinson, the managing director of First Retail Group. WOW was a time when clothing and shoe stores could see sales that rivalled Christmas levels as audiences took the opportunity to bring the fashion off the runway and into the grandstands. “Typically it’s groups of people and couples, and when they’re in Wellington, they’re there to spend.”
Sales were already “crazy”, said a staff member at Mischief Shoes on Lambton Quay this week.
With WOW’s new ownership under Hideaki Fukutake, businesses would be putting their best foot forward to ensure visitors were delivered a quality experience, Wilkinson said.
But major events like WOW also posed additional staffing challenges for hospitality businesses, which had struggled to maintain adequate workforces, said Marisa Bidois, chief executive of the Restaurant Association.
The capital was honoured to continue to host WOW, said mayor Tory Whanau from Asia. “The impact on our local economy is undeniable – hotels, hospitality, and of course retail. I welcome our guests from all around Aotearoa with the greatest manaakitanga and hope they have a wonderful time.”
In 2021 the city council underwrote WOW’s insurance coverage to ensure it would remain in Wellington for five years, and subsequently had to pay out $3.6m after that year’s show was cancelled due to Covid-19.
WOW - by the numbers
860,000 people have seen WOW since it started 36 years ago
2022 show contributed more than $30m to Wellington’s regional economy. That included 35,000 out-of-town visitors, and 77,000 visitor nights
More than 300 people are involved in each WOW production
Five artists headline this year’s show, joining a cast of more than 100 dancers, aerialists and singers, 32 models, and 4 dancers performing in garments