KEY POINTS:
The 2011 Rugby World Cup will be critical in helping the tourism industry to pull through the tough times it is facing, says Tourism Industry Association chief executive Tim Cossar.
Cossar, who took over the association in May this year after six years heading Wellington's marketing arm, said the industry had already begun preparing for the event but the 1000-day point was a timely reminder about how fast it was approaching.
"One thousand days - that's a long way away. But in reality that's almost tomorrow.
"If we don't think about this today it will be on us tomorrow.
"We have to start getting people excited. It is a key point in time for the New Zealand tourism industry. We don't have a better opportunity than that on the horizon."
Cossar said ensuring essential service and work skills were up to scratch would be a major issue, especially since the industry had already faced years of struggling to find enough skilled people to fill roles.
"We need to establish essential work skills and basic tools just to deliver a really good customer experience."
Accommodation would also be a huge issue.
"The cruise ship in Wellington worked well during the Lions tour - but Wellington was bursting at the seams."
Tourism Holdings outgoing chief executive, Trevor Hall, said the Rugby World Cup would ensure a good start to the 2011 season.
"It comes at a very good time for the industry - it's going to give a great start into the 2011 season."
But Hall said the tough times could also mean owners would struggle to inject capital into their businesses over the next two years, resulting in a shabby-looking industry.
"We have a situation where the tourism industry is under enormous pressure. We could go into 2011 with shabby infrastructure. To survive 2009 and 2010 there will undoubtedly be organisations cutting back on capital expenditure.
"That is a risk. We have got to be mindful we have to keep spending on cap-ex."
He said the Government needed to consider that as part of its stimulus package.
Air New Zealand will over the next six months set up a specialised team to refine planning for the cup. The airline has already spoken to other carriers in Europe about special arrangements to get fans to points in the United States or Japan and then be flown here on Air New Zealand.
Air NZ group general manager international airlines Ed Sims said the airline faced a delicate balancing act between providing enough inbound capacity and then flying planes back to Europe partly empty during the tournament. There was also a need to cater to tourists not interested in rugby at that time.
"We've got to make sure we're not putting people off from non-rugby-playing countries. There will be a lot of people who are coming here even from rugby-playing nations such as Australia and the UK who will be here for holiday reasons rather than rugby."
Big events such as the Olympics had deterred as many people as they attracted.
The airline was now trying to get a feel from the organisers about the size of teams, their entourage and number of fans. This would become easier when bases for the teams were announced in March.
Sims said previous world cups showed demand was concentrated on the final rounds.
Like other airlines, Air New Zealand faces a tough year in 2009 which could stretch into 2010 with a slump in demand and the risk of fuel prices rising quickly again when world economies emerge from the slump.
Sims said the timing of the cup could work out perfectly to give the airline the chance to showcase three brand-new Boeing 777-300s.
"We think that we'll be climbing out of the demand downturn that we're in and taking delivery of the new 777s at the end of 2010 - there are a lot of positive factors that are aligning," he said.
"We're really confident that, not quite irrespective of market conditions, we start to get New Zealand and Air New Zealand's destiny back in our own hands from 2010 onwards."
The airline was not getting carried away with the extra business the cup could generate.
"We're using it more as a symbolic target to make sure we have our house in order."
In order to fly tens of thousands of fans around the country there would be pressure to extend airport curfews and put bigger jet aircraft into some of the regional centres now served with turboprops.
The special project team would be made up of marketing, fleet and route-planning specialists.
Although not a sponsor - Emirates is a Worldwide Partner of the 2011 Rugby World Cup - Sims said his airline was critical to making the event a success.
"Clearly this is going to be a huge event for us even though we're not an event sponsor. It will be hard to make it a success without Air New Zealand."
The Cup
* Tournament starts on September 10, 2011.
* Runs for 44 days.
* 60,000 to 70,000 visitors expected.
* United Kingdom expected be a major source.
* $1.15 billion economic boost expected.
