Some street art is now so valuable that people are spending big bucks to protect it. A UK businessman paid six figures to get his hands on a piece of street art that had attracted thousands of visitors to a town in Wales. Residents were scared he'd take the block wall with the mural away - and he did! And then he set up a Street Art Museum in that same town with that mural as a centrepiece for the next three years. His motivation in doing so was purely to help drive visitation. And street art investment is not just happening on the other side of the world. Christchurch has seen a post-quake boom in merry mural making, leading to Lonely Planet naming the New Zealand city a Global Street Art Capital alongside New York, Barcelona and Berlin. The projected result? More people travelling to Christchurch to see its street art. According to STUFF, Christchurch City Council and its tourism agency ChristchurchNZ have committed no less than $716,000 to murals and street art festivals over the past decade since the earthquake. That excludes street art that was included in a community project contract price, so the real figure could be more like S1 million. In a world where international tourism campaigns typically cost many times this figure, suddenly that spend looks like a wise investment. Let’s face it, $1 million to change the face of a city, add vibrancy and positively alter people’s perception is smart and thrifty spending. Where does Australia sit in the street art world? Find out at the Art of Attraction Tourism Summit, at the Events Centre Caloundra on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast from 2 to 4 March 2022. Registrations will open late November
.'Rise from the Rubble' in Christchurch NZ by Brandon Warrell. Image by NZStreetArt