The Southland Murihiku Events Strategy 2020-25 was presented to Southland District Council’s community and strategy committee yesterday.
Community partnership leader Karen Purdue said the mission statement for the strategy proposed "a supported, dynamic and sustainable" event sector which encouraged community input, drove visitation and built on the region’s points of difference.
"Events can be looked at from different perspectives.
"They contribute to the quality of life on offer in the region and they play a key role in attracting people to the region to both live and visit."
Following the Covid-19 lockdown, as well as the ongoing restrictions on international visitors, it was more important now than ever to look at ways to boost the events sector.
The strategy, developed by Great South, stated while events were at present spread out relatively well during the year, the strategy highlighted opportunities to grow the sector during off-peak times of year.
Across Southland, 1612 events had been identified — 1523 of which were community events, 57 regional, 31 special interest and three premier events — and were mainly designed for Southlanders, rather than for attracting people from outside the region.
Cr Ebel Kremer said in every part of the district, events were one of the best ways to support the communities and businesses within them at the moment.
Cr Julie Keast said it was great to see the strategy get to the stage it now was.
The "big thing" now would be about getting the word out so people were aware of what was happening in the region.
"The calendar part of that will be a key role in people organising things to know when to put it on so they’re not clashing with other things or that they’re complimenting other events."
The strategy was also to be translated into Te Reo Maori.
