The FIFA party’s nearly over – how did the Women’s World Cup impact Aotearoa?

FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 has spread football fever through the country, attracted international visitors and created an undeniable buzz.

Have we maximised the opportunities an event of this scale presents?

According to FIFA, more than 700,000 people attended 29 matches across the country, with three matches drawing sell-out crowds of more than 43,000 to Auckland’s Eden Park.

Spectators piled into fan zones – by Friday, 84,000 visitors had passed through the FIFA Fan Festival at The Cloud on Auckland’s Queens Wharf – and 1.88 million viewers in New Zealand have watched matches on television. But did businesses feel a boost?

Managing director of strategic tourism research agency Angus and Associates, Chris Roberts, told Stuff there were two key opportunities an “uplifting, joyous” event like the Women’s World Cup offered.

The first is attracting visitors. While final numbers for international visitors aren’t yet out for July 2023, Roberts said it looked like the tally would come in just under 200,000. That’s 56,000 fewer international visitors than in July 2019.

“Undoubtedly FIFA gave us a boost, but we’re still a good 20-25% below pre-Covid levels. It’s certainly welcome, but July was still far from a record period.”

Although he pointed out some markets were up, specifically the United States.

Prior to the tournament, it was estimated the event would generate 20,000-25,000 international visitors, with the majority expected from the United States, said Heather Kirkham, general manager of tourism at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

”It’s too early to tell exactly how many international visitors actually turned up, but we do know almost 20,000 visitors from the US alone entered New Zealand between 15 July and 6 August,” Kirkham said.

Some of those American visitors have turned up at Gavin Oliver’s EcoZip Adventures on Waiheke Island, where business was up 260% on the same period last year – although that’s in a context of the border not fully opening until August 2022 when Covid-19 measures ended.

“It’s been a welcome shot in the arm,” Oliver said, adding the previous three years had been really tough for the tourism industry.

The American effect showed in ticket sales too. Of total ticket sales for matches at Eden Park, 11.8% were to visitors from the United States, while 18.1% were to international visitors.

The impact of strong ticket sales has flowed into hospitality establishments around stadiums, the Restaurant Association’s chief executive Marisa Bidois said, with those located closest to stadiums benefiting the most.

Bars screening matches have seen a bump too, while visiting fans have also sought out other establishments in main centres “looking for a taste of New Zealand as part of their tourism experience”, she said.

Spend figures won’t be available until November, but anecdotal feedback from hospitality businesses in host cities is that increased early and mid-week bookings smoothed out the normal peaks and troughs through the week, Bidois said. And gains have been felt further afield, with tourist hotspots such as Rotorua and Queenstown seeing an uplift.

Aside from the immediate benefits for the tourism and hospitality sectors, such a significant event also presented the opportunity to put Aotearoa in front of international audiences, Roberts said.

Although the tragic shooting in downtown Auckland on the day the tournament launched “was the opposite of how we wanted to present New Zealand to the world”, Roberts said such events go out of people’s minds fairly quickly amidst ongoing bad news around the world.

Every time someone saw a match on a screen, it was a subconscious exposure to the country, he said.

“And that viewer just might decide to make New Zealand their next holiday destination without linking it back to watching a match played at Wellington Regional Stadium.”

And for Kirkham, there’s hope that global viewer numbers approaching two billion will result in more people choosing to holiday here in future.

So what’s the next big event? Nothing is on the calendar and there’s concern across the industry about massive budget cuts at Auckland’s tourism and events agency, Tātaki Auckland Unlimited (TAU), Roberts said.

“The public doesn’t realise that everything from an Adele concert to a sporting event doesn’t happen unless the host city fronts up with some incentives.”

Chris Simpson, TAU’s head of major events, knows those incentives well. He’s spent 15 years cultivating a dream of New Zealand hosting a FIFA Women’s World Cup. That included proving our hosting abilities with the 2008 FIFA Under 17 Women’s World Cup and the 2015 FIFA Under 20 Men’s World Cup.

“There’s no question that we’ve absolutely maximised this opportunity and cemented our reputation for hosting world-class events.”

But with host and rights fees increasing significantly, New Zealand “might be priced out of it, unless we look at how we approach it”, Simpson said.

His focus now is building locally-owned, anchor events that keep visitors returning every year.