Trenz helped change industry view

Rotorua's tourism sector has seen a boost from Trenz 2015, operators say. Photo / File

Rotorua's tourism sector has seen a boost from Trenz 2015, according to business owners.

Kaitiaki Adventures owner Jason Wright said his business had received a positive spin-off from New Zealand's premium international trade event, which saw more than 1100 international and national delegates come to the Energy Events Centre for four days last month.

"It definitely has been really positive for the forward bookings, it normally takes six months to turn that around and we have got some really positive early indications.

"A lot of buyers have already indicated they are excited to come back next year as well because Rotorua did such a good job, so it is positive as well, to be able to showcase our experience first hand is massive."

Multi-Day Adventures owner operator Tak Mutu said the event had helped him strengthen ties with agents.

"It wasn't a hugely successful Trenz for us in terms of bringing new business, but there are some more clients that we have been dealing with for a while and by showing them what we do on site we have managed to get more work out of current agents, which was cool.

"The more successful part of Trenz was showing the agents what Rotorua is like right now - a few hadn't been for a decade, so to see it busy, and the likes of Eat Streat pumping, the more varied activities, stepping away from usual geothermal parks and stuff like that was really good."

Pure Cruise director and operator Matt Horder said Trenz was a great way to impress agents.

"The feedback to us was awesome, it was really good to have people here and we have seen interest from different markets, and more interest from the Asian market.

"It was awesome to have it in Rotorua. We took some select people, which we really wanted to get on the yacht, sailing and the feed back was phenomenal. The weather was brilliant so it was really, really good."

Mr Mutu said Trenz had gone a long way towards expanding perceptions of Rotorua.

" What Skyline and the tourism team did at that final wrap party was perfect, to have people from down in Southern Lakes and the Queenstown team say that spread of food was phenomenal just opened people up to the idea of what Rotorua actually is, not what they thought it was."