“It is going to be completely up to us as a city to make the most of this enormous honour and breakthrough for us,’’ said Mr Moore.

It was important for the public to understand that this was not an honour, or award that had been deliberately sought.

The new title had resulted after the American researchers had dropped the idea of looking at all New Zealand’s major cities in favour of a focus purely on Christchurch. Christchurch had stood out so strongly that it had been turned into a “global pin-up example of superb city management.’’

“It’s just about impossible to oversell the importance of this award to Christchurch. “For our city it is a bit like winning the Academy Awards, or the Emmys, or a Nobel Prize for city management,’’ said Mr Moore.

Christchurch’s public needed to realise that the huge vote of confidence in the city from Governing magazine was a compliment to the public, Council staff and their politicians.

The important thing now for Christchurch was to make sure that we made the most of the new label for the city and made it an integral part of our marketing message.