Trenz: Rotorua operators attract interest

Rotorua's tourism sector has attracted good levels of interest from good-quality buyers at the annual Trenz tourism industry expo in Queenstown this week.

Destination Rotorua Marketing general manager Oscar Nathan told The Daily Post that feedback from the event had been very good.

"It has been really good in terms of the quality of buyers this year. There has been very keen interest in the new products in Rotorua - especially new accommodation offerings coming into play - and in the continued investment in existing products."

Key messages to come out of the event, which ran from Monday to Thursday, were the new and genuine opportunities to come out of the China and ASEAN markets and Nathan said the challenge for operators and the industry as a whole was to understand the nuances of those markets and to "get it right".

The opportunities to leverage off the upcoming releases of The Hobbit movies were also highlighted by speakers at Trenz.

"There is a sense of confidence in the industry."

Post Business will be bringing more detailed coverage of the opportunities in the China and ASEAN markets and around The Hobbit next week.

Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism John Key echoed Nathan's sentiment in his presentation to media at Trenz yesterday.

"The Government is feeling much more optimistic and numbers, overall, are starting to recover and look quite good."

He pointed to growth out of China and South East Asia and reiterated the message to overseas media that the Christchurch earthquakes had affected only a small part of the country and even Christchurch itself was mostly up an running and keen for visitors.

Key also spoke of the challenges of attracting visitors from long-haul markets, particularly in light of some of the departure taxes imposed by governments in the likes of the United Kingdom.

"I will be sitting down with David Cameron [British Prime Minister] in a few weeks' time and will be bending his ear about that again. The New Zealand Government has raised this continually with them as a barrier and an unfair tax."

Major events and their ability to draw people to New Zealand are also high on the Government's agenda and Key said it was looking to increase the major events development fund used to help bring events here.

He also talked about the need for a new, larger convention centre in Auckland, but added that the Government would look at supporting smaller centres in locations such as Queenstown to build the country's convention appeal.

There was no mention of how this would affect existing centres, such as those in Rotorua.