$2b tipped from tourist showcase

Travel companies from around the world will be eyeing up New Zealand's tourism offerings when the country's largest tourism expo opens in Christchurch today.

More than 1700 people are expected to attend, and Fiona Luhrs, chief executive of Tourism Rendezvous New Zealand (Trenz), estimates that $2 billion worth of business will be done.

Trenz will give 450 local tourism operators, ranging from boutique hotels to large tour companies, the chance to showcase their services to about 400 international travel experts and professionals.

For many exhibitors, deals done over the four-day event will underpin their business for the years ahead.

"Trenz is the opportunity of the year for business-people in the tourism sector to pitch new product and cement relationships with our key offshore customers," Luhrs said.

Trenz is billed as the largest international trade show in NZ, and its size has steadily increased each year.

More than 33,000 fifteen-minute meetings have been scheduled for the week between tourism operators and international buyers.

Trenz is organised by the Tourism Industry Association of New Zealand, which represents 3500 businesses and organisations within the tourism industry.

Tourism is the country's single largest export sector and contributed $7.4 billion to the economy, or 17.8 per cent of exports, in the year to March 2003.