High demand to attend Trenz 2019 in Rotorua

Trenz when it was held in Rotorua in 2015. Photo / File

New Zealand's continuing popularity as a visitor destination is fuelling demand from overseas travel and tourism marketers wanting to come to Trenz 2019.

Trenz is New Zealand's $39.1 billion tourism industry's most important annual business event and takes place this year in Rotorua from May 13 to 19.

The event will be attended by 386 buyers from around the world, up from 383 last year, who will engage in four days of networking and meetings with around 300 of the country's leading tourism operators (known as sellers), who will be showcasing their products and services.

Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Chris Roberts said the buyers would be looking to reconnect with established New Zealand tourism businesses and seeking out new and exciting visitor experiences they can promote to consumers in their home markets.

"They are the most influential travel and tourism buyers in terms of sending
international visitors to New Zealand."

Roberts said buyers were coming from 30 markets, up from 27 last year.

"As expected, we are seeing very good representation from our big visitor markets, including China, Australia and the USA. We are also seeing good growth out of developing markets where the industry is working hard to grow high-value visitors, such as Argentina, Brazil and Indonesia.

"There is also good representation out of India, an important market because of a preference to travel here in the spring and autumn, which helps spread visitor arrivals across the year," he said.

Over the four-day event, buyers and sellers will have a total of 30,000 15-minute
meetings. It is business "speed dating".

"The majority of buyers tell us that Trenz is the most important New Zealand tourism product purchasing activity they undertake. Key to this is their ability to meet a large number of top tourism operators face to face in one location," Roberts said.

"The deals they make and the relationships they build at Trenz 2019 in Rotorua
will generate tens of millions of dollars' worth of new tourism business for the
New Zealand economy, benefiting communities across the country."