Punters are missing out on two of Marlborough's biggest events as the region struggles with accommodation shortages.

Organisers of the Classic Fighters on April 6 and the Marlborough Wine Festival on February 10 have had people inquire about the 2008 and 2009 events after they failed to find accommodation this year.

Classic Fighters chairman Allan Baker says an Australian tour company expecting to bring in 100 people for the Classic Fighters show on April 6 has had to cut back to 50 because they couldn't find a place to stay over the Easter weekend.

"The good thing is they've already booked in for the 2009 show, but that's still 50 gold passes that we've lost and that's a lot."

Wine Marlborough marketing manager Tom Trolove said the organisation had had half a dozen emails from people in the last 10 days saying they were not coming to the festival because they could not get accommodation "and asking for next year's date so they could book in now for that".

Wine Marlborough expects 5000, or two thirds, of its ticket holders to be from out of town.

When organisers rang around last October to find accommodation for band members, the response from most places was "you're joking", he said.

However, he doubted it would be as severe as the Air Show situation, because the younger age of the majority of punters meant some budget accommodation would be used.

Others would make do with tents, as he did as a student coming to the festival.

Scenic Circle general manager Angus Stewart said there were seven rooms left for the wine festival but none for the airshow this year or in 2009.

He said Blenheim could definitely use more high end accommodation once the Combined Clubs and Convention Centre was completed, but until then there was the risk of having extra rooms sit idle when there were no major events or conferences on.

Destination Marlborough chief executive Dominic Moran said it was a case of there not being enough high-end accommodation available for Air Show clients, rather than an accommodation shortage as a whole.

He said while space was "diminishing fast", for the Wine Festival there were still some hotel rooms available on Saturday night. There was limited space at motels, campgrounds, backpackers and "quite a big capacity" in bed and breakfasts for both events.

Mr Moran did not expect the events to outgrow Marlborough's accommodation capacity, even if that meant people had to stay as far away as Nelson, which happened most years.

"I think it's market forces at play. As Marlborough becomes more of a visitor destination our capacity has been increasing."

Mayor Alistair Sowman said while the shortage was concerning, Blenheim had coped in the past and it was up to event organisers and accommodation providers to find innovative solutions to the problem.

"It's about people looking at other options and the accommodation providers outside Blenheim promoting themselves.

"There are a wide number of options here other than hotels or motels. It's to package it up so that it's acceptable for the travelling public."

However, Mr Sowman said, in the long term, accommodation providers in Blenheim would need to increase the town's capacity through building new facilities.

These would become viable as the reputation of events such as the air show and the wine festival grew, and the Combined Clubs facility neared completion.

Blenheim i-Site Visitor Centre travel consultant Julie Murchison said the centre had received two to three accommodation enquiries a day for the past month for both the wine festival and the airshow.

The i-Site had a short list of people on standby in case there were cancellations.

Two Marlborough people had also offered accommodation at their homes.

Blenheim woman Janet Dunn had already rented out her house to three couples from Christchurch for the wine festival and would also be offering accommodation for the airshow.

Mrs Dunn would stay with family during the events.

"I like the idea of being able to share what I've got. I've got a pool out the back and it's a nice setting."

Marlborough Motel Association president and AAA Marlin Motel owner/operator Karen MacDonald said there were few options left in Blenheim for the airshow and wine festival weekends, but people could still be accommodated in Havelock, Picton and other areas of outer Marlborough.

"It looks like it's going to be a great weekend."

People could also ask accommodation providers for the duty motel in the area, who would be able to check availability region-wide.

Robin Heaton of Aston Court Motel in Blenheim said the motel had been booked out for three months for both events and was referring phone calls onto the i-Site.

Airport Motel owner Murray Rowe said his Renwick motel was booked out for the weekend of the air show 12 months ago.

Most people who regularly visited Blenheim for the show each year made repeat bookings for next year's event, which meant the rush started early.

He said bookings for the wine festival usually started just before Christmas, giving people more time to finalise their accommodation.

Havelock Garden Motel owner/operator Alan Day said bookings were not yet extraordinarily busy.

"Maybe we are a little bit too far away, 25 to 30 minutes and they want to socialise in the evening and don't want to drive back or what have you, so we don't usually get that much of an overflow."

Mr Trolove said the bigger problem for Wine Marlborough was the shortage of flights for the weekend, with many people unable to come because they either could not get flights, or could not afford the high price attached to them.

Air New Zealand used to run 737s direct from Auckland for the festival weekend. "That's the way to go. We want to get them back," he said.

He said the increased number of conferences being held in Marlborough, which would multiply after the opening of the Combined Clubs and Conference Centre, meant the region needed far better airline services.

Air2there's Richard Baldwin said that for the wine festival there were a few extra flights on and each one was "chocka".

However, there would need to be substantial bookings on the return flights to justify putting on further aircraft for the weekend.

The airshow was a little further out and bookings were still filling up for that, he said.

People flying into the show generally flew into Woodbourne rather than Omaka, which was full.

Anything from a dozen up to 40 aircraft could be parked at Woodbourne.


SOURCE: MAIKE VAN DER HEIDE - The Marlborough Express