Rotorua tourism sets up hot line to industry

The Rotorua Tourism Committee is to adopt a two-tiered liaison structure to improve communication with the industry.

At its November meeting yesterday, the committee voted unanimously to adopt the structure after consultation with the sector.

Committee member Elizabeth Valentine told the meeting the majority of responses favoured this option over a single larger body of tourism representatives or a market-based approach.

"It provides a clear separation between the tourism committee and Destination Rotorua Marketing and their roles."

She also reported submissions showed a desire for smaller representative groups of nine to 16 members, rather than the 22-person concept put forward by the McIntyre report which established the committee.

"Simple and nimble were words that one person used quite well," she said.

Chairman Tony Marks said the number of consultation responses had been limited, but the industry had spoken.

"No-one wants additional bureaucracy. They want action, feedback and input. They want a direct link to us rather than layers of people to go through."

The decision means there will be two levels of communication, senior management and owners interacting directly with the committee on governance and strategy and senior or middle-management communicating with Destination Rotorua Marketing on operational matters.

This option was seen as providing more meaningful engagement with industry and markets, with the potential to cross-reference feedback from the two different arms for consistency. But it raised concerns that working with two groups could require additional resources.

Members agreed to look at how existing industry and market groups could be used to keep resources required to a minimum and avoid reinventing the wheel.

Another initiative raised by Marks was to schedule forums on specific topics in the New Year, giving industry representatives time to consider the topics and make submissions in advance to be discussed on the day.

He said this would be a more effective way to get feedback on particular topics than the wider industry forums.