Conferences And Conventions Bring Business To Marlborough

Five hundred of the professionals whose task it is to plan how communities should develop and how our natural environment should be managed gathered in Blenheim last week, offering a great chance to showcase our region’s performance.

The planners are just one of the steadily growing numbers of national bodies holding conferences at Marlborough’s Convention Centre.

The previous week almost four hundred delegates arrived in town for the Creative Fibre Festival, and attendance numbers swelled by another hundred or so visitors to the event on each of its four days.

A lively conference calendar increases business in downtown Blenheim and it’s a particularly effective way of increasing visitor numbers to Marlborough over the winter months.

Multiple-day events bring the best returns to the town and in the coming months the Convention Centre will be hosting some big numbers, building up to September when Marlborough’s largest ever national conference will be held; the Maori Women’s Welfare League. More than 700 delegates are due to attend this five-day event.

Research from the industry suggests a conference delegate spends an average $400 a day while attending an event, taking in accommodation, food and entertainment.