The $180 million central city convention centre opened just over a year ago, with Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau saying after it was complete that the building would be “the first step in the rebirth of Wellington”.
But documents released under the Local Government Official Information Act show the Jurassic World by Brickman exhibition and the Marvel: Earth’s Mightiest Exhibition failed to meet targets.
The Jurassic World by Brickman exhibition ran from June 3 to October 16, 2023 and featured a range of dinosaurs from the Jurassic Park film series made of Lego.
The documents state that the exhibition had an attendee target of 144,000 but attracted only 92,109.
So they fell short by 36% – now even close. And this means ratepayers will again be the losers.
I have actually attended both the Jurassic World and Marvel exhibitions. It is nice to be able to take the kids to them. But you don’t need a 18,000 square metres convention centre just to host exhibitions – there are other venues.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.
1 comment:
I can tell you exactly why. The ticket price to enter the exhibitions was insanely high! I went to the Marvel exhibition with visiting family. I'm not remotely interested in Marvel but we needed to fill time. For that ticket price you would hope for some sort of live interactive show! Not just a museum exhibit of costumes. They could have tripled attendance by cutting the ticket prices in half. Foolish management.
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