Queenstown Lakes Districts hotels, restaurants and retailers are expected to reap the benefit of a much-needed cash injection from the New Zealand PGA Pro-Am Championship, which starts on Thursday.
The four-day golf event is being held at The Hills, near Arrowtown, and PGA chief executive Duncan Simpson said early indications were that a good attendance of spectators would substantially boost the local economy.
Business people Mr Simpson had spoken to last week said the tournament came at a good time. The peak of the summer season had passed, there was no skiing and the region was into the shoulder season for tourism.
"Hotels are glad to have some new blood in town. This is underpinned by the major sponsor being the Hilton Hotel, which is using the tournament to establish its brand."
The Hills held the New Zealand Golf Open in 2007, which attracted 34,000 spectators over four days.
In 2009, the event attracted 25,000 spectators and was thought to have pumped $8 million into the region.
An economic study showed that at the 2009 open 9000 visitors to the tournament racked up 36,000 bed nights.
That indicated that some of the visitors were there for more than one or two days.
Five hundred of the visitors were from outside New Zealand and 3200 were outside of the Otago-Southland region,While in Wanaka last week, Mr Simpson was told that residents intended attending the pro-am event.
Those coming from outside the region brought their partners, not all of whom attended the golf but were content with shopping or experiencing some of the other attractions in the region.
Some of them would play on other golf courses in the region, boosting their coffers with green fees.
Attendance at the pro-am depended a lot on names, but Mr Simpson was confident the "solid field", along with celebrity golfers, would attract interest.
One major attraction would be Lydia Ko, who at 14 was the top-ranked amateur woman golfer in the world and the youngest to win a professional women's golf tournament. Ko would play off the men's tees, a good test for her, and the course would be the longest she had played, he said.
Former New Zealand champions John Lister and Greg Turner were expected to play some parts of the tournament and it was rumoured Prime Minister John Key would play in a qualifying event on Friday.
