The Process
So how did we go about identifying Christchurch’s unique identity? Finding out what it means to live in our communities and how others perceive our city? Well, it involved a lot of listening, and extensive research where we heard from people locally and around the world, plus we compared ourselves to the world’s best.
This Process Included:
- Stakeholder consultation – 50+ one-on-one interviews, group interviews with 42 people, trends and audience workshops, stakeholder survey, social comment boards
- Community consultation – 4,400 survey respondents
- Visitor research – almost 10,000 respondents primarily from NZ and Australia
- Destination benchmarking – against 13 comparable global cities and 40 metrics
- Mana whenua engagement
Seven Key Themes Emerged From The Feedback
1. We Love Christchurch
58% of visitors and 44% of resident listed “beautiful” as one of their top perceptions of the city.
“Christchurch is seen as the underdog, but I really love this city and I’m so glad I moved here. It makes me feel a bit normal – it’s my place. And it’s so close to the things that I love to do like climbing and snowboarding.”
2. We Are The “Best Place To Be A Kiwi”
67% of residents would recommend Christchurch as a place to live and 80% agreed it’s a good or excellent place to raise a family. We’re also mad about our parks, outdoor activities and city dining.
“I think one of the wonderful things about Christchurch is that it’s an amazing lifestyle that you can’t compare with anywhere else in the world.”
3. We Punch Above Our Weight
We are New Zealand’s true second city – based on performance benchmarking of key metrics. But we don’t always celebrate that.
“The heart of our problem is we don’t champion our city. If you go to Wellington, people talk about their city."
4. Business Is In Our DNA
We rank highly against international cities for our ability to attract business events and our industries are resilient.
“I describe it as the prototype city, a city of new ideas and incubation where you are able to scale to a global market.”
5. We Are Not An Entertainment Hub
We’ve been rebuilt and we have been lacking in city entertainment. Only 21% of our community describes our region as “fun”, and 19% as “cultural” or “vibrant”. However, visitors come for other reasons – only 42% say nightlife is important in their vitiation – and their top five words for Christchurch were: Beautiful. Historical. Welcoming. Resilient. Clean.
6. We Have The Opportunity To Become A Destination
When we consider what visitors look for in a destination, Christchurch has a great match with their top ten requirements. It's time to stop saying we are a gateway to somewhere and ask them to visit us. Because everything they want is right here.
“I would recommend Christchurch as a destination to every New Zealander. They should come to see the story that’s happened here post-quake."
7. We Are A New City – Not The Post-Earthquake City
“This is a great time for our city.”
“What we’ve gained since the quakes is hopefully a vision of a new city, a new future, and it’s a fairly exciting one.”
Want To Know More?
If you are interested in more background on the extensive research, drop us a line, we’d love to share more.
