Visitors to Rotorua left looking for wet weather activities

Executive manager of Rotorua i-site Graham Brownrigg had a busy long weekend. Photo / File

Visitors to Rotorua over Queen's Birthday Weekend may have been left sheltering from the rain, but the wet weather didn't put them off enjoying the city's eateries and indoor activities.

Rotorua i-Site in the Redwoods and on Fenton St were kept busy with visitors, up 11 per cent and 13 per cent respectively compared with the same weekend last year.

Executive manager Graham Brownrigg said visitors looking for activities they could do on a rainy day kept the business busy.

"With intrepid weather we do see more people milling about than if it was a sunny day.

"In the store retail was well up, I guess people were sheltering a lot more this year."

He said the carpark at Motion Entertainment was "certainly full", which he noticed driving past on Sunday.

"We always have people coming into the i-Site finding out things they can do in Rotorua, other than the stuff they came for. This weekend that was particularly around wet weather activities."

Accommodation was still available leading into the weekend, Brownrigg said.

"We had a steady stream of people coming in still seeking accommodation on Friday and Saturday night."

Martin Althuizen from Executive on Fenton said people could not be too disappointed with what the weather delivered for Rotorua this weekend.

"Most people knew what they wanted to do and the weather seemed to hold off long enough.

"Everybody has left reasonably chirpy [Monday] morning and the weather is dry enough for people to get out and about."

Althuizen said among the accommodation sector, most places ended up being full and the likes of Eat Streat had also been kept busy.

Motion Entertainment national brand and sales manager Julia Manktelow said they had definitely seen a busy weekend with visitors coming through town.

"With the capacity of people in the city and the bad weather we were a great option for people looking for something to do in the wet weather.

"We've been at our peak visitor numbers all weekend."

Manktelow said she didn't have the numbers back yet but on any given day, during the peak season, 1500 people could come through the doors.

"For us we're definitely heading into peak season, with winter weather we're expecting to stay this busy."

It was a busy weekend for restaurants on Eat Streat, according to a spokeswoman at Atticus Finch.

"A few places weren't open for lunch [on Monday], but there are still a lot of people around just walking through town."

Ambrosia's Tom Lindley said Eat Streat had definitely been busier than just the average weekend.

"We had our Ambrosia Festival on, so we had five live bands over the course of the weekend.

"Our numbers were definitely up, a lot of that was because of the advertising around the festival."