Tourism industry plans for future

Rotorua's tourism industry is meeting on Tuesday to discuss the sector's performance and key actions to improve internationally and domestically.

Hosted by the Rotorua Tourism Committee, the workshop will run from 10am to 2pm at the Energy Events Centre.

Participants will discuss the performance and status of the destination, followed by a session on key actions to improving domestic and international performance. After lunch, the key issues and themes to come out of the first two sessions will be presented.

These outcomes will help the Tourism Committee to reaffirm or realign aspects of the Rotorua Tourism Strategic Plan.

The committee held its February meeting on Monday, receiving updates on the latest figures for Rotorua's accommodation and attractions, and activities and reports from Destination Rotorua Marketing general manager Oscar Nathan and Rotorua District Council economic and regulatory services group manager Mark Rawson.

Nathan said the summer had been a mixed bag for local operators, but numbers were coming back up to last year's levels. He pointed to adverse publicity for the city through two incidents that went viral and made national headlines in January.

"It shows the power of social media and that we need to be more vigilant and more diligent in responding to these types of things to make sure there are balanced messages put out there."

Nathan also spoke about the rising number of music gigs coming to Rotorua and how a number of venue operators were putting the city on the map of the domestic music scene.

Destination Rotorua Marketing had also collated a calendar of major events to help identify times of high demand in the sector and to identify gaps where the city could look to attract new events.