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When radiologists and tissue engineering researchers met in Christchurch this October, ChristchurchNZ expected them to spend $4.2 million. Final delegate numbers suggest they spent around $6.6 million in the city and almost $9 million across New Zealand.
That first estimate covered the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists (RANZCR) conference and the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society Asia-Pacific (TERMIS-AP) conference.
ChristchurchNZ business events manager Bree Jones says the estimate was cautious.
“The $4.2M figure was based on the BEIA calculator tool using conservative estimates,” she says.
RANZCR’s final numbers came in at 1,429 delegates, and 463 of them (32 per cent) were from New Zealand. Its estimated spend in Christchurch has gone from $1.62 million to $3.96 million. Its estimated spend across New Zealand has gone from $2.12 million to $5.16 million, which includes pre- and post-conference touring and spending by companions.
TERMIS-AP is estimated to have brought in $2.6 million in Christchurch and $3.77 million nationally.
They are two of the 11 conferences Christchurch is hosting in the fourth quarter. Those 11 conferences are bringing 6,290 delegates and around $14 million in spend.
Ahead of plan
Te Pae Christchurch measures its success the same way: by the money it brings into the region.
“Utilisation rate is not the primary measure of success for a convention centre like Te Pae Christchurch. A key measure is the economic impact the centre generates by attracting visitors and events to Christchurch, Canterbury and New Zealand,” Te Pae Christchurch marketing manager Mel Gurden says.
On that measure, the centre is doing better than planned.
“During the planning stages, Te Pae Christchurch was projected to generate around $60 million in economic impact annually for New Zealand. Recent impact assessments show the centre is performing ahead of those original expectations. In the year to June 2026, conventions held at Te Pae Christchurch generated almost $74 million for the New Zealand economy, including more than $60 million directly for the Canterbury region.”
A busy calendar
The venue has hosted bigger events, but it has a size it works best at.
“Te Pae Christchurch has hosted conferences of more than 2,000 delegates, including the 2025 International Water Association and Water New Zealand Conference & Expo. However, the centre is particularly well suited to conferences for up to 1,500 delegates,” Mel says.
Most of its business falls in the same part of the year.
“Our approach is to target events that are the right fit for the venue and can be accommodated within the available calendar. Around 85 per cent of our business, predominantly conventions, is held between May and November, so those months are consistently our busiest. Where a client’s preferred date falls within an already full period, rather than simply turning the business away, we do our best to work with them to identify alternative dates that we can accommodate or see if we can move it at another venue in the city.”
Mel says that timing was the plan from the start.
“That seasonality aligns strongly with the original purpose of Te Pae Christchurch: attracting visitors to Christchurch outside the traditional peak leisure period and helping create more balanced year-round visitation. Since Te Pae Christchurch opened, we have seen a significant strengthening of hotel occupancy during the traditionally quieter season, alongside the broader growth of Christchurch’s business events sector.”
Hotels didn’t do as well this October as they did a year ago, even with the conferences in town. Hotel Data New Zealand puts Christchurch’s October occupancy at 84.6 per cent, down from 87.5 per cent in October 2025.
Winning and losing
Since February 2025, ChristchurchNZ has been involved in 72 international bids, including bids for Australian conferences. Decisions have been made on 56 of them, and Christchurch won 32, a 57 per cent success rate.
Bree says that’s only part of the picture.
“This data covers only the business events ChristchurchNZ has been involved in attracting – there are many more that work directly with venues and PCOs to book conferences.”
ChristchurchNZ won’t say what the bids cost or how much public money went into them.
“As conference bidding is a competitive process, precise costs are commercially sensitive as disclosing them would compromise our ability to negotiate future conferences,” Bree says.
What’s holding it back
Bree says winning a conference depends more on what the association wants than on hotel rooms or flights.
“International conference bidding is less about city infrastructure and more about the objectives or needs of the international association. Many things can influence that, including geopolitical factors, rotation patterns, influence of industry leaders, and financial risk.”
ChristchurchNZ’s results are well above its target.
“Our success rate is significantly above our Level of Service target of 35 per cent. Since 1 October 2025, the combined international and Australasian success rate is 47 per cent (International 56 per cent, Australian 41 per cent) and our overall business event success rate for FY 25/26 was 63 per cent,” Bree says.
The release named three local healthtech companies: MARS Bioimaging, BioOra and Comrad Medical Systems. There’s no evidence yet that the conferences have led to any business for them.
“We have not heard from those companies specifically following the conference,” Bree says.
Going international
New convention centres elsewhere in New Zealand are also competing for conferences. Mel says Te Pae doesn’t focus only on how many conferences it has confirmed for future years.
“Rather than focus solely on the number already confirmed for individual future years, the clearest measure of the shift is the change in our overall convention mix. In our first year, around 10 per cent of Te Pae Christchurch’s convention business was international and 90 per cent national. This year, international conventions are expected to represent around 40 per cent of the mix.”
“That growth has been deliberate. With additional large convention centres entering the New Zealand market, our strategy has been to build Te Pae Christchurch’s international share and attract business that brings new visitors and economic value into New Zealand, particularly Christchurch and Canterbury,” she says.
