Rotorua's economy continuing to grow

FILE

All indicators of spending,investment and labour market activity in Rotorua are in "expansionary territory" for the three months ended December, according to the latest national data from Wellington-based economic research company Infometrics.

For the first time in Rotorua's history, guest nights for the year exceeded two million, up 6.9 per cent on 2014, says the report.

Key drivers of Rotorua's continued growth came from the tourism sector and rising real estate and construction activity.

Other economic indicators included upward trends for non-residential consents (68 per cent), house sales (60 per cent), residential consents (19 per cent), house prices and car registrations (11 per cent), commercial vehicle registrations (8.7 per cent), traffic flow (5.6 per cent), retail trade (4.8 per cent) guest nights (6.9 per cent) and gross domestic product (2.9 per cent).

Mayor Steve Chadwick said it was pleasing to see that Rotorua's momentum was continuing.

"We are changing our focus from essentially getting Rotorua ready for business, to achieving sustained growth.

"On a daily basis we are hearing of new investors coming to town, of new developments revitalising the inner city and of our residential property market on the rise.

"There has been a huge amount of work gone into creating this extremely positive environment.

"It is a model that is working and we have no plans to change this approach to doing our business," she said.

Deputy mayor and economic growth portfolio lead Dave Donaldson said tourism was clearly a major driver.

"Eighteen months ago in Rotorua visitor expenditure was at $500m, we are now closing in on $600m and are fast heading towards our target of $1 billion.

"Every day we're hearing positive economic news about Rotorua. Just last month we reported a 13 per cent increase over the 2014 year in multi-day conferences held in Rotorua.

"The good economic news just keeps on coming," said Mr Donaldson.