primary research

The Convention Delegate Survey (CDS) is a continuous online survey of around 2,000 convention delegates each year distributed through professional conference organisers.  This programme measures the expenditure and travel patterns of local, domestic and international convention delegates in New Zealand and is used to estimate the economic contribution of multi-day conventions to the New Zealand economy.  The CDS weighting methodology uses population estimates from the CAS combined with visitor arrival data from the IVA (Statistics New Zealand).

Covec conducted a post-event evaluation of the Ellerslie Flower Show for Manukau City Council.  Around 70,000 people attended the event over 5 days, including around 7,000 international visitors.  The evaluation was comprehensive and included an assessment of the social, cultural, environmental and economic impacts of the event on Manukau City and the wider Auckland region.

The purpose of this project was to assess the economic impact of Ironman New Zealand on the Taupo and New Zealand economies.  Our analysis was informed by the results of two online surveys designed and implemented by Covec – one for competitors and one for spectators.  Covec undertook all aspects of this project including the field research, online surveying, economic analysis and presentation of results.

The economic evaluation of the Lions Series was based on a post-event online survey of around 4,000 spectators whose email addresses were collected by Covec field staff at Lions’ matches.  Covec completed all aspects of this project - the collection of email addresses at each game, developing and deploying the online survey, processing the data, estimating the economic impact and presenting the results.

Economic Impact DHL Lions Series.pdf

The purpose of this project was to measure the satisfaction and sponsorship awareness of participants in the REAL Women’s Duathlon Series.  Covec designed and coded an online survey and used the organiser’s email database to send it to more than 5,000 participants.  We received 2,027 responses to the survey in 5 days (a 39% response rate) with the majority (over 80%) arriving in the first 36 hours.  We then checked and cleaned the data, weighted it to population, conducted our analysis and produced an informative report for the client.

The International Visitor Survey (IVS) is an ongoing research programme that measures the travel and expenditure patterns of international visitors to New Zealand.  The IVS is classified as a Tier 1 statistic by Statistics New Zealand.  Covec has managed the data collection component of the programme since 2008, conducting 5,200 face-to-face interviews with departing international visitors annually at Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch international airports. Our work includes the management of 17 multi-lingual field staff across three airports, the coordination of interview scheduling to meet survey quotas, and the secure storage and transmission of primary data.

The NZHC Research Programme is a monthly online survey of more than 100 of New Zealand’s largest hotels commissioned by NZHC. This programme measures and benchmarks the performance of major hotels in New Zealand in terms of occupancy, average daily rate (ADR) and revenue per available (RevPAR) room.  Covec has made several major enhancements to the NZHC programme since taking it over in 2004.  These include taking the programme online with the development of a simple, secure website that meets the needs of a range of users.  Covec manages the programme through a hands-on tiered communications programme that is responsive to the industry’s changing information requirements.  The NZHC research programme is now considered to be a benchmark within the tourism industry and is used by Statistics New Zealand as a collection mechanism for the Commercial Accommodation Monitor (CAM).

Component of the Economic Value of Tourism project
Covec designed and implemented an online survey of cruise ship passengers during the 2010/11 cruise season.  Email addresses were collected by intercepting passengers as they embarked and disembarked their ship.  The cruise passenger survey was weighted to the population of cruise passengers using detailed data provided by Cruise New Zealand. The main purposes of the survey were to understand the expenditure patterns of cruise ship passengers, and to estimate the economic footprint of the cruise sector.

Covec was commissioned by Auckland City Council to measure the economic impact of six signature events on Auckland in 2009/2010.  These included Air New Zealand Fashion Week, Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards, adidas Auckland Marathon, ASB Classic & Heineken Open, and Auckland Seafood Festival.  The analysis of each event was based on event budget and ticketing information, online surveys of event attendees and interviews with sponsors.  Covec undertook all aspects of the research including field research, online surveying, data analysis, economic modelling and reporting.

The Ticketholders Survey for Rugby World Cup 2011 was an online survey of around 14,500 domestic and international RWC ticket purchasers.  The main purpose of this research was to understand who was purchasing tickets, how many tickets were being purchased by each person, what modes of transport and accommodation they intended to use, and what percentage of people had pre-booked.  The results were also used to update the forecast of international visitor arrivals to New Zealand.