Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick to represent country in Argentina

Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick will represent New Zealand at a cultural cities meeting in Argentina in August. Photo/File

When New Zealand is represented at a cultural cities meeting in Argentina, it will be by Rotorua's mayor.

Steve Chadwick has been personally invited to attend and speak at the Meeting of the Network of Cultural Cities of FEALAC (Forum of East Asia Latin America Co-operation) to be held in San Salvador de Jujuy, Argentina.

The meeting is from August 21 to 23.

Chadwick said the invitation came "out of the blue" but five South American ambassadors had previously visited Rotorua and the Argentinian ambassador was one of them.

"He was very impressed about what we were doing to put culture into the centre of Vision 2030.

"He said he wanted one mayor from New Zealand [to attend] and in his view, it should be Rotorua."

At the meeting, Chadwick will deliver a talk on "the Rotorua story" and how culture is at the centre of it.

"It's a delight because we'll again tell the Rotorua story internationally," she said.

"There will be things they do we can learn from. I'm very hungry to absorb it all."

The theme of the conference is "Cities as agents for local development: Culture, tourism and sustainable development".

The topics discussed will include culture for social transformation, sustainable tourism and local developments and emerging and sustainable cities.

Chadwick said she was excited to share and exchange knowledge.

"I understand the region I'm going to is a very ancient destination and there will probably be sharing of ideas about our journey, what they are intending to do and how we can work together to be better linked."

The mayor will attend the meeting at no cost to the ratepayers as her journey there is being supported by Air New Zealand while the travel, accommodation and meals in Argentina are being covered by the host city.