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Speaker 1: The tourism story continues to unfold in a positive way.

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Speaker 1: This time next week, next Wednesday, hotel occupancy in Auckland's

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Speaker 1: going to be one hundred percent. When was last time

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Speaker 1: they did that? Years years ago? It acquates to fifty

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Speaker 1: seven thousand visited Night's Andy Dundass with Auckland unlimited morning.

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Speaker 2: Good morning.

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Speaker 1: Make when we say one hundred percent, is it literally

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Speaker 1: one hundred percent or just a rounded sort of number.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's pretty close. We don't often get this close,

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Speaker 2: so we're pretty excited.

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Speaker 1: So is it a conference in a concert and that's

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Speaker 1: the sort of thing that tips it over or are

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Speaker 1: we seeing a broader trend?

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Speaker 2: Do you know? These two events have spiked it, but

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Speaker 2: we are seeing more conferences obviously hit the city as well,

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Speaker 2: So there's a ton of events on at this you know,

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Speaker 2: we start November starts our kind of busy season. But

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Speaker 2: those two events timed at the same time, have just

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Speaker 2: hit us over that sort of percent mark.

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Speaker 1: So over the season, then how close to one hundred

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Speaker 1: will will we get on an ongoing basis, Well.

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Speaker 2: We'll probably average over the summer between eight five percent

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Speaker 2: occupancy and these nice big events spikes just lift us

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Speaker 2: up for certain parts of the parts of the year.

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Speaker 2: The last time we probably had a spike like this

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Speaker 2: earlier in the year SLGP Luke Combs, prior to that

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Speaker 2: Pink cold Play Pearl Jam. They kind of just give

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Speaker 2: those lovely little spikes and really support the accommodation in

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Speaker 2: hospital sector.

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Speaker 1: So what the government's saying, There's two key things there.

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Speaker 1: One are the new rules around Eden Park that will

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Speaker 1: make material difference presumably in the opening of the convention center.

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Speaker 1: So that's good for your side of the equation, I'm assuming.

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Speaker 2: Very very good. It means that we have a better

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Speaker 2: well balanced year round program of events and therefore hospitality

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Speaker 2: and accommodation has a more consistent run at kind of

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Speaker 2: filling restaurants and filling hotels.

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Speaker 1: Can the city cope yes, absolutely.

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Speaker 2: And actually what it does it brings such incredible vibrancy.

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Speaker 2: You know, Busy City is a safe city. The more

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Speaker 2: people we have in the city, it feels safe, it

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Speaker 2: feels better, feels more lively. So this is a this

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Speaker 2: is a great step forward.

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Speaker 1: Which is the juxtaposition, I guess between what you're trying

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Speaker 1: to sell and what we hear the news on a

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Speaker 1: daily basis. Auckland's a dump, downtown's dead. Is that a

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Speaker 1: problem or does this fix that or help fix it?

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Speaker 2: This helps, So vibrancy is great, and you know, we've

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Speaker 2: got cruise ships starting to pile in, so that's you know,

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Speaker 2: two three thousand passengers coming off ships to support the

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Speaker 2: city center. So all of that helps to try and

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Speaker 2: keep the city lively. We want the city looking great.

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Speaker 2: We've got a whole lot of work going on around

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Speaker 2: the nighttime economy, getting you know, Aucklanders and visitors into

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Speaker 2: the city after five, and that's also helping to drive

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Speaker 2: vibrancy and filling their news at hospital across the city

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Speaker 2: as well.

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Speaker 1: Good stuff Annie Andy Dundas, who's with Auckland Unlimited. Hopefully

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Speaker 1: it flows around the rest of the country as well.

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Speaker 2: For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to

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