Rugby World Cup: Rotorua visitors survey

The Ireland v Russia game on Sunday was Rotorua's most significant Rugby World Cup match, as demonstrated by the sell-out crowd, and it was a lucrative weekend for many local businesses.

Official tourism figures for September will not be available from Statistics New Zealand until November, so The Daily Post decided to go meet some of our visitors to get a snapshot of who was here, where they stayed, who they were travelling with, what they knew about Rotorua beforehand and what they thought of the place and the people.

While this sample of 40 visitors, taken in the central business district on Friday, Sunday and Tuesday, cannot be taken as an accurate cross-section of the thousands of visitors, hopefully it will give our tourism sector some idea of who they are catering to during the tournament.

That said, a quarter of people surveyed were not here for the Rugby World Cup. Two were visiting friends and relatives and eight were simply on holiday. One Napier couple had even come to Rotorua on Tuesday to avoid the Rugby World Cup hype around the Canada v Japan match there.

We spoke to three people who were just here for the day, but of the 37 who were staying overnight, 38 per cent were spending two nights and 41 per cent expected to stay three or four nights. Another 8 per cent planned stays of five or more nights. In July, the average stay was 1.76 nights, so 86 per cent of our Rugby World Cup guests were staying longer than average in the city.

Ages ranged from 22 to 81, with 26 to 30-year-olds being the most common group at 20 per cent. They were followed by 21-25, 36-40 and 56-60, each on 12.5 per cent.

The gender split was 60 per cent male and 40 per cent female, fitting with the high proportion - almost a third - of people travelling with a partner or spouse. Nearly a third were travelling with friends and the rest were with family or tour groups, including one group of more than 100 visitors.

Despite the high numbers of campervans in the city, only 20 per cent of our interviewees were staying in campervans, making this the second most common accommodation. Hotels were the most popular at 37.5 per cent. Motels and backpackers were each about 10 per cent.

About a quarter of our sample were domestic visitors, with half coming from Rotorua's key target market in Auckland.

Of the international guests, the Irish were, unsurprisingly, the most plentiful at 51 per cent. Australians made up a fifth of the sample and the French dominated on Tuesday as supporters travelled between the All Black match in Auckland last Saturday and the France v Tonga game in Wellington this weekend.

Other nationalities in the survey were Canadian, English and Argentinian. A number of Asian visitors were approached, but did not understand enough English to answer the questions.

A quarter of the visitors had no prior knowledge about Rotorua and another 12.5 per cent had heard only that it smelled.

However, more than a third had been here before and felt they knew quite a lot about the city. Geothermal activity was the best known feature - mentioned by 38 per cent of interviewees - followed by adventure tourism and Maori culture, each on 8 per cent.

Visitors who researched their visit used a range of sources. The internet was most common at 30 per cent, followed by the i-Site and advice from friends and family on 25 per cent each. A fifth of visitors referred to guide books, while accommodation providers, tour guides and campervan companies were also cited.