Kāpiti Coast’s Arts Trail grows bigger and better each year and it’s right on the brink of becoming that elusive creature “an iconic event,” Kāpiti Mayor Jenny Rowan said today.
“From small beginnings 10 years ago, the Arts Trail has grown to involve more than 200 artists and artisans and is bringing increasing numbers of people to Kāpiti each year.
“While we’re still gathering information from the participating artists on numbers of visitors they received and levels of enquiries and sales they had, it’s clear that the Trail has continued to grow in importance and popularity.
“Cafes up and down the Coast were full and those which also had exhibitions report huge increases in trade over the two days of the Trail.
“The weather wasn’t too kind on the Saturday but it was still and clear on the Sunday and all venues report record numbers of people visiting.
“I’m passionate about our Arts Trail. I believe it is an event we need to support and to ensure it has the necessary resources to encourage people from north and south to come to our District to look at the work of our creative people and to leave their dollars behind.
“A full economic analysis of the impact of the Arts Trail on our local economy is not possible at this point but I believe from the anecdotal evidence we have that it’s worth several hundreds of thousands and, with more investment in promotion, could easily be worth far more than that.
“Everyone involved with the Arts Trail must be congratulated. Once again the Council team has done a remarkable job with limited resources. Let’s hope next year we can provide more support and investment to ensure the Trail’s on-going success,” Mayor Rowan said.
