Local Focus: Bilingual tourism campaign launches in Rotorua

A bilingual digital map proves popular for visitors. Made with funding from NZ On Air.

Reorua is Rotorua's largest bilingual campaign, as part of the With Us campaign that launched this month, encouraging locals and people around Aotearoa to experience Rotorua.

Rotorua Economic Development marketing manager Haydn Marriner said the With Us campaign encouraged people to "experience Rotorua 'with us', to do venture 'with us', to eat 'with us'."

"It's an invitation from us as the tangata whenua to our local and domestic whānau to come down here and maybe just experience Rotorua."

Part of the project is a newly developed digital map called Come Experience Rotorua With Us which features 10 Rotorua Icons in English and Māori, available at www.rotoruanz.com/withus.

"Every 10 seconds those [names] will flip over into Māori," Marriner said. "So for people who don't understand te reo Māori or who are looking to learn more, they'll be able to see the Māori terminology for some of our Rotorua Icons."

The objective of the campaign is to use, speak, read, see and hear te reo Māori as part of a visit to the unique region.

"We're Rotorua. We believe that culture is important to us here and we believe the rest of New Zealand is interested in that too," he said.

The digital map has been available for just over a week and is already receiving great feedback. More bilingual resources will be rolled out in the coming months.

Made with funding from