Rotorua's tourism industry is bleeding and a thriving domestic tourism market is the only band aid. Journalist Kelly Makiha looks at how many New Zealanders come to Rotorua each year and asks those in the industry can we survive?
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Rotorua has the potential to bounce back better than expected if it's successful in tapping into the billions of dollars that would have been spent by Kiwis on international travel.
The city's wounded visitor industry is busy preparing for the regional travel restrictions to drop, and when it does, they hope the flood gates to Rotorua will open.
With Kiwis unable, and potentially unwilling, to travel overseas for a while, Rotorua's visitor industry will be doing its best to woo those travellers to Rotorua.
Domestic visitors already make up 60 per cent of the city's visitor spend and most of the domestic travellers come from Auckland.
Redwoods Treewalk co-founder Bruce Thomasen said domestic travellers would be bursting to get out once the lockdown levels dropped and they had no choice but to travel short distances.
He said with more than 1 million people living in Auckland, Rotorua was a clear choice for the biggest domestic market because it was just under three hours' drive away and petrol had "never been cheaper".
Figures to the year ending January show domestic visitors spent $499 million, or 59 per cent, of the $845m total visitor spend in Rotorua.
The five biggest spending markets are Auckland ($147m), Waikato ($98m), Bay of Plenty ($93m), Australia ($72m) and United States ($48m).
Thomasen said some tourism businesses, like his, could open at level 2 and were preparing to do so.
"But we need the meeting industry to happen. We need the likes of government departments to go back to business travel and have their conferences. We need events like touch, kapa haka, Kurangaituku Netball Tournament and all the other events Rotorua hosts so well to happen."
He said if budgets were tight there were plenty of free attractions to mix up with others.
"We have beautiful parks, lakes, mountain biking as well as key family attractions like Skyline's luge and the Treewalk. A lot of people might stay with friends or family because they haven't seen them in a while so by all means invite them to stay, but go out to the cafes and have your coffees, buy local and support local businesses."
Thomasen said Rotorua could survive.
"Rotorua will fill that need to get away.
"This year is not about making profit, it is about keeping staff employed. We need Kiwis to get out and do their bit."
Mitai Māori Village owner Wetini Mitai-Ngatai said between 20 and 30 per cent of their visitors were domestic travellers.
However, to keep their 80 to 110 full and part-time staff employed in the long-term that would need to rise.
He said they were currently working on strategies to make Mitai Māori Village more relevant to domestic travellers, including pushing the educational aspect of their hangi and concert experiences.
He said it was more than just going along and sitting and watching a concert, with the experience delving into how culture was at the centre of their wellbeing.
"It's not just coming to see us and watch us dance. We teach why we dance in the first place because we didn't have written language. Our history is passed down from carvings, songs and dance."
He said now was a good time for domestic travellers to educate themselves on Māori culture by supporting businesses such as his.
Te Puia chief executive Tim Cossar said the one key certainty they had at the moment was the domestic market would be a critical bridge to their future.
"That means we will have to change some things and develop some slightly different offerings to ensure we are relevant to New Zealanders. Our team are focusing on this at the moment, as we all work extremely hard to ensure a strong future for our business."
Destination Rotorua chief executive Michelle Templer said New Zealanders spent about $10 billion each year on overseas travel and some of that money would now make its way into the domestic market, which created an opportunity for Rotorua to enhance its position as a favoured domestic holiday destination.
"Our team is connecting directly with as many operators as possible to check in with them and get a feel for how they are managing through this process and the support they will need post-lockdown."
She said that might include help with product development in response to a changing visitor market and collaborative marketing campaigns to inspire more local and domestic travel and experiences.
"Like everyone else, we need to follow the Government's lockdown requirements so we are currently working on campaigns to encourage locals to experience their own backyard, followed by domestic visitors to travel here when the time is right.
"We're fortunate to have a strong industry partnership in Rotorua through the Rotorua Tourism Investment Partnership, so we'll continue to align our marketing programmes and product development to the new view of the world that we're facing together."
• Visitors to Rotorua spend $845m annually on goods and services
• 59 per cent or $499m is from domestic visitors and 41 per cent or $346m is from international visitors
• The five biggest spending markets are Auckland ($147m), Waikato ($98m), Bay of Plenty ($93m), Australia ($72m) and USA ($48m)
• The five largest categories of spend are retail excluding food and fuel ($155m), accommodation ($133m), recreation services ($131m), food and beverage services ($130m) and passenger transport ($119m)
• Before Covid-19, Kiwis intending to travel within New Zealand in the upcoming 12 months had a 35 per cent propensity to visit Rotorua
• Before Covid-19, Aucklanders intending to travel within New Zealand in the upcoming 12 months had a 43 per cent propensity to visit Rotorua
• Before Covid-19, Australians intending to travel to New Zealand in the upcoming 12 months had a 34 per cent propensity to visit Rotorua
- Source: Rotorua Economic Development, year ending January 2020
• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website
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