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Speaker 1: Now Walkland hotels are getting a major cash hit from

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Speaker 1: big events. During the weekend when Luke Comb's The Country

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Speaker 1: Singer and sale GP were in town, hotels made it

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Speaker 1: an extra five million dollars, meaning that they filled an

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Speaker 1: extra eight thousand rooms over four days. So how did

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Speaker 1: the CEO see heart did the city CEO Vivic joins in? Hello, viv,

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Speaker 1: nice to talk, so nice to see you. It just

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Speaker 1: goes to show just how much of an impact these

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Speaker 1: big things have.

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Speaker 2: They really do. I mean, we see it. You know,

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Speaker 2: we sort with Pink last year, Coldplay and Pearl Jam,

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Speaker 2: sal GP. They make a huge impact. I mean big

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Speaker 2: and small events attract people. But when you get a

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Speaker 2: really big one and the hotels the fall and the

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Speaker 2: restaurants a fall and the place is buzzing. That's just

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Speaker 2: really what you need to see.

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Speaker 1: And whose responsibility is it to keep these big events

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Speaker 1: coming to all of our cities.

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Speaker 2: Well, it depends what they are. I mean, you know,

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Speaker 2: where there are public benefits, I think there is a

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Speaker 2: rationale for public something, but understand and that's tight and sensitive,

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Speaker 2: So you know, that's that's that's the question. Really, the

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Speaker 2: funding is a challenge with some of the bigger events.

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Speaker 2: But the reality is, I think there's a strong recognition

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Speaker 2: that events have a big impact, and if there are

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Speaker 2: public benefits, I think there is a rationales have public

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Speaker 2: money in it.

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Speaker 1: I think the America's Cup debate has colored those sorts

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Speaker 1: of comments because that required sort of the sort of

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Speaker 1: money like two hundred million dollars from government and councils

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Speaker 1: to get the America's Cup here, because we have to

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Speaker 1: pay for their research costs as well as just hosting

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Speaker 1: the entire event. But most of the events that we're

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Speaker 1: talking about, the Cold Place as you say, and the

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Speaker 1: sal GP, they haven't been a big spend.

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Speaker 2: Well, a lot of them are privately thunder and pay

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Speaker 2: for them. But if you look at the America's Cup,

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Speaker 2: and if you look at the Barcelona results that have

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Speaker 2: come out, you know they say that's a two billion

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Speaker 2: dollar economic impact, maybe half a million unique visitors, one

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Speaker 2: hundred and fifty super yachts. You know that if you

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Speaker 2: think about America's Cup here, we've got the infrastructure, so

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Speaker 2: it's the economic benefit, the trade, the tourism, and really

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Speaker 2: the sort of huge reputation we have in that marine

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Speaker 2: innovation and technology space. There's a lot of benefits that

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Speaker 2: come from a large event like that, particularly when you've

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Speaker 2: got the infrastructure. So it is going to need a

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Speaker 2: private funding as well, but we're big supporters of getting

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Speaker 2: that back and having that in twenty twenty seven would

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Speaker 2: be a massive boost.

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Speaker 1: But it's true for everything we've been through, it's true

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Speaker 1: that our hotels are feast and famine because in between

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Speaker 1: these big events, we actually have low occupancy and they're

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Speaker 1: complaining about it. And meanwhile, the call came out over

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Speaker 1: the weekend for bed tax basically so that we've got

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Speaker 1: a fund that we can keep bringing events like this

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Speaker 1: to keep our hotels still. Do you support a bed tax?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we do. I mean that's something that actually

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Speaker 2: the industry generally seems to be supporting, and there's been

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Speaker 2: a call for some time now and actually needs to

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Speaker 2: get some urgency because one of the thoughts is that

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Speaker 2: that could be a way to contribute to the America's Cup.

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Speaker 2: But time is of the essence, and it is something

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Speaker 2: that a number of groups had been asking for for

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Speaker 2: some time, and there are various ways you can attract money,

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Speaker 2: but you know, the real is this is one that

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Speaker 2: seems to have more favored than certainly the last accommodation tax,

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Speaker 2: which really was unfair on the hotel sector. But this

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Speaker 2: one is a small percentage on top of a room

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Speaker 2: rate that would contribute to attracting these large events and

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Speaker 2: destination marketing.

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Speaker 1: V thank you for your time today, and in fact

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Speaker 1: I saw back the other day at an arts festival

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Speaker 1: event and that also was stimulating the economy.

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Speaker 2: For more from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live

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Speaker 2: to news Talks. It'd be from five am weekdays, or

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