Travel buyers gather for trade show

Rotorua is set to cash in as hundreds of influential travel buyers descend on Rotorua for TRENZ, New Zealand's annual tourism trade show.

The show begins with a welcome function tonight, with millions of dollars worth of business expected to be negotiated over the next three days at the Energy Events Centre.

Destination Rotorua trade manager Patrick Dault said with the most buyers since 2007 descending on the city the local economy would definitely benefit.

"Rotorua will benefit from the increased number of buyers who will be able to experience our unique landscapes, the authenticity of our Maori culture and our world-class tourism offerings first hand."

To put the value of international buyers into perspective, each will send an average of 4000 visitors to New Zealand annually. Collectively this equated to 1.2 million visitors a year, Mr Dault said.

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"As each visitor will spend an average of $3425 during their visit, these buyers could have influence over more than $4 billion coming into the New Zealand economy.

"Of this, more than $150 million could benefit Rotorua."

Destination Rotorua general manager Oscar Nathan said hosting buyers was a huge opportunity to shine a global spotlight on the region.

"People sell what they know, so to have them here experiencing Rotorua's unique landscapes, Maori culture and world-class tourism products first hand will undoubtedly generate a huge amount of business for the local visitor industry."

Mr Nathan said the flow-on effect of increased visitors to Rotorua would also benefit the wider community and would drive business for local business owners and tradespeople providing goods or services to the industry, or the visitors themselves.