There is little Destination Queenstown can do as the company which runs Gay Ski Week has gone into voluntary liquidation, leaving the event cancelled unless a miracle investor comes forward. Gay Ski Week has drawn gay skiers, snowboarders and party bunnies from across New Zealand, Australia and some far flung parts of the world to the country's adventure capital for the past eight seasons. Organiser Mike Sanford claims last year's festival contributed $1.2 million to the Queenstown economy. A change of dates to avoid a Rugby World Cup clash, slow sales, volcanic ash, the ongoing earthquakes, a drop in sponsorship money and a drop in support from local businesses are all factors which have left the company which runs Gay Ski Week, Livewire Group, in voluntary liquidation just two days before the 2011 event was due to begin. Sanford is beyond devastated by the collapse after spending the past few months trying to find an investor to cover a $30,000 shortfall, asking for help from Destination Queenstown, Tourism New Zealand, the Tourism Minister's office and Air New Zealand. Destination Queenstown Chief Executive Tony Everitt says the group's mandate is limited to promotion and it has been happy to assist Gay Ski Week through promotion on its website, social media and other channels. He says reports it would not allow Sanford to canvas its members are not quite true: "People are free to talk to each other of course. We were unable to canvas members on behalf of the event. An event is a business, in that respect no different to our other member businesses like jetboat companies etc," he says. "Destination Queenstown's mandate from our members doesn't include collecting funds to assist a particular business." Everitt says Destination Queenstown will be disappointed if the event doesn't go ahead. "It has been a colourful component of the Queenstown events calendar," he says. "Exact numbers seem to have varied over the years. Of course every extra visitor to Queenstown has a welcome impact." GayNZ.com Daily News understands a number of New Zealanders who have booked trips to Gay Ski Week are still planning to head to Queenstown and make what they can of it. There may be scaled back versions of some of the planned events and we will have full details if this is confirmed.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 21st July 2011 - 12:37pm