Rotorua tourism operators set out to charm Australians

Ngahihi o te ra Bidois and Flight Centre's Emma Kavanagh at the roadshow. Photo / Supplied

Rotorua tourism operators have been showcasing the city's unique offering to Australian travel agents in Sydney, Brisbane, Gold Coast and Melbourne this week.

The operators have met with more than 350 travel agents who are responsible for selling New Zealand to potential Australian visitors, providing a great opportunity to position the region as a vibrant and exciting tourism destination.

Destination Rotorua international trade manager Patrick Dault said the organisation wanted to encourage manuhiri (guests) to stay longer to experience Rotorua's manaakitanga (hospitality).

"Our Spring Roadshow coincides with the end of a significant Tourism New Zealand campaign encouraging Australians to travel to New Zealand's North Island this spring, summer and for the shoulder seasons.

"This allows us to build on the exceptional work that Tourism New Zealand and Auckland International Airport do in that region," he said.

The roadshow provided a good opportunity to introduce new tourism operators to the Australian market, such as Philip Boorman's New Zealand Mountain Biking, which offers guided mountain bike tours in Rotorua and the North Island. It also featured new developments to existing products like Canopy Tours' New Ultimate Tour.

Rotorua Canopy Tours general manager Paul Button said he felt privileged to have the opportunity to showcase Rotorua's newest nature adventure attraction.

"It was received with great enthusiasm and the agents were impressed by how much Rotorua can offer visitors."

Established operators like Skyline, Polynesian Spa and Volcanic Air were there to reconnect with the travel industry.

"We met an extremely engaged and enthusiastic community of travel agents, so this was a prime opportunity for us to reinforce the uniqueness of Rotorua and the surrounding district as a destination," Volcanic Air Rotorua chief pilot and director Tim Barrow said.

Destination Rotorua business events manager Craig Murray attended to host an exclusive event for Professional Conference Organisers based out of Sydney and showcase the city's high standard of business events infrastructure to Australian based PCO and incentive event managers.

"Rotorua has successfully hosted a number of large conferences based out of Australia in 2018 and we aim to continue to grow this market," he said.

This year's roadshow featured a keynote address by one of New Zealand's award winning professional speakers and proud Rotorua local Ngahihi o te ra Bidois.

Every attendee was also given a Pipi Ma doll - a Rotorua creation by Kristin Ross and Hōhepa Tuahine.

Australia is Rotorua's most valuable international market contributing more than $64 million to our local economy every year.

The 2018 roadshow is the fifth consecutive Australian visit by the Rotorua team.