Please distribute to all staff

October 17, 2008

Kia Ora !*FIRSTNAME*!,

This month starts with good news that our domestic visitor nights spent in commercial accommodation for the month of August are up 6.4% over August of last year.  More on that in the stats section of this newsletter.  Certainly reinforcing our plan to put a little extra into Domestic this year.  This newsletter has a comprehensive update on what exactly we are doing domestically so please do let us know if you'd like to be involved.  Craig is our Domestic / Events Co-ordinator and can be reached on or DDI (07) 349 7288.

Madness is the only way to describe the office over the past month with staff working hard to maximise our exposure in the marketplace.  Craig has attended the Seniors Lifestyle Expo for the first time and we were the only NZ destination in attendance.  Plenty of Australian destinations, but good responses from the attendees that it was good to see Rotorua.

On Wednesday we hosted our third Auckland Conventions & Incentives Showcase with 22 operators in attendance and over 80 RSVPs, so important to keep our profile up in the lucrative C & I industry.  Melissa will be taking some well deserved time off at the end of the month. We have deferred the Wellington event till early next year given the election and other issues around the dates we had selected.

James is in Asia currently undertaking three weeks of frontline and product training as well as attending Kiwilink Asia.  James will be updating agents in Korea, Taiwan, China and Hong Kong as well as meeting agents from Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and India at Kiwilink. 

Next week Ruth is in Australia undertaking Product Manager updates and attending a Tourism NZ Market Review, including a discussion on the What’s On Campaign.  Rotorua have been a major player in the What’s On Spring campaign from an online perspective and to date this campaign has generated 6570 unique visits to a specially designed landing page on rotoruaNZ.com.

So hopefully things are a little more orderly next month – yeah right!!  Stay in touch.

Kind regards
Ruth Crampton
Assistant General Manager
DDI 349 7280

In This Issue

Domestic Feature

DRTM’s domestic promotions target two markets. Our summer and autumn ads focus on families, with 50+ DINKS (Double Income No Kids) being targeted for spring and winter. The following methods are used to reach these target markets:

Print Advertising

An ongoing commitment to print advertising is still underway as per the media schedule confirmed for the 2008-09 year. Key publications identified to reach our target market include the Australian Woman’s Weekly, NZ House & Garden, Little Treasures, Sky Watch Magazine & Cuisine where we run full page colour adverts. Current & relevant Hot Deals are promoted in these adverts with the call to action being our 0800 ROTORUA or to visit www.rotoruaNZ.com

Online Advertising

An extension of previous online advertising has been implemented this year due to a large proportion of our target audience being described as moderate to heavy users of the internet. As a result various banner advertising is currently being used to promote Rotorua on sites Trade me (Travel Bug), Scoop, Stuff and NZ Herald. These banner ads stay live from anywhere between one to two weeks and are designed to link to our website. 

Billboards

Billboards in key regions such as Auckland, Wellington, Waikato and Tauranga have been selected to promote our destination. These are selected based on the suburbs suitability, traffic volumes and often include lighting for 24 hour visibility. Displayed for a month at a time we often receive a bonus month exposure if that particular site does not have another booking. August this year we had nine billboards on display within Auckland, Wellington and Waikato regions which while the call to action is our website, even generated a couple of inquiries to our marketing office asking where these images were as this was a destination they would very much like to visit. Our mountain biking billboard lead to an enquiry from a Hamilton Bike shop owner that would like to have a poster version displayed in her shop. Seven billboard spaces are booked for November.

AA Campaign

This year AA continued with their campaigns aimed at getting New Zealanders to holiday in their own backyard and promote domestic travel. DRTM has been heavily involved with this initiative this year which included a variety of print, online and radio advertising. Print adverts promoting Rotorua have been included in AA’s I Love You New Zealand supplements which have been inserted into The New Zealand Herald, NZ Woman’s Weekly and the NZ Listener while further adverts have been displayed in AA’s Directions magazine. Rotorua hot deals are promoted on AA’s website and e-newsletters which have a database of over 230,000 subscribers. The ‘I've Been Everywhere’ slot allows live interviews on Radio Newstalk ZB with Danny Watson. Don Gunn has been able to promote our region with a four minute one on one interview with Danny. The most recent of these took place earlier this month with the next interview scheduled for February 2009.

Consumer Shows

Two consumer shows were planned for this year – 50+ Lifestyle Expo in October and Big Boys Toys in November both held at the ASB Show Grounds in Auckland. We had a fantastic response to our site at the 50+ expo and this will be the second year Destination Rotorua will attend Big Boys Toys. Other expos that fit our target market are being looked into for next year.

Direct Mail Drops

Rotorua visitor guides are delivered direct to Rotorua resident’s mail boxes at the beginning of our summer season. These are to help promote and educate our own residents with the large number of domestic tourists that visit friends and family in our region. Our Hot Deals brochure and Rotorua events guides are delivered after each other to mail boxes within Auckland, Wellington, Hawkes Bay and Waikato a couple of times a year.

Collateral Development

A new mountain bike brochure has just been completed to assist the promotion of this fantastic resource we have in Rotorua for this activity. Aimed at first time mountain bikers and families this is now being distributed within the isites, accommodation sector, bike shops and local attractions.

C & I Update

Auckland Road show

Firstly thank you to those operators that attended the Auckland Road show on Wednesday at the Ellerslie Events Centre. The feedback to the Bureau from those that attended the show has been very positive and we look forward to welcome many of those who attended to the city over the coming months.
The Bureau will be distributing to the exhibitors the RSVP list early next week and an evaluation form for feedback.

Wellington Road show

Due to the coming elections the Wellington Road show has been put off until the 28th January 2009. As this time we will have the new planner to launch at a networking function in the capital.

Planner

Continuing on with the planner, Melissa will be coming out to operators over the next couple of weeks to confirm who would like to be part of the 2009 C&I Planner, and then start with collating of content.

The Bureau is also looking at having a planner launch in Auckland on the 12th February 2009 of the new planner, so please make this in your diary's now.

Famils

Over the past few weeks the bureau has assisted a few operators with famils and we thank those involved for including us in there arrangements. Please remember we are here to assist you with famils and only want to enhance your clients experiences in Rotorua.

Conference Assist's

The bureau has assisted 7 groups with information about Rotorua and has had several bid requests, including Christmas enquiries.

Agent Familiarisations

26 – 27 Sept – Kangaroo Tours Agent’s Famil, Brazil

2-5 Oct – Newmans / Flight Centre, Australia

Media Update

As most of you will be aware, DRTM is currently focusing on the domestic market. We’re aiming to have as much editorial featured in NZ publications as possible and have already seen some great results, such as six-page and three-page features in Adventure magazine’s latest issue.

Another self-famil invitation has gone out to the TNZ media team, to encourage them to keep up to date with Rotorua products. We look forward to hosting as many of them as possible. Any operators wanting to be considered for these famils should register their interest with Justine. Phone (07) 349 7286 or e-mail

The latest story in the Daily Post famil series ran in the paper on October 16.  The Post has a new tourism reporter, Julie Taylor, who has taken over these famils from Matthew Martin. Stories run monthly (at the Daily Post’s discretion) on a Thursday. Thanks to all operators who are participating; you will all be featured in this continuing programme.

For any operators sending out press releases, please ensure Justine is on your distribution list. Justine can forward these releases to media on our database and add them to the news section on our website to maximise coverage.

Rotorua Sustainable Tourism Charter

The Rotorua Sustainable Tourism Charter has recently been awarded $10,000 from the Ministry of Tourism.   This grant was part of a larger pool of money specifically put aside from the STAR project for those Tourism Charters already in existence. 

In the instance of the Rotorua Charter this funding will be largely used to provide Charter member businesses with advice on adopting actions measured by the Qualmark Green criteria.  It’s great to see the Charter assessment process contributed to Steve and Gillian Osborne of the Alpin Motel being armed with the resources they needed to become the first Qualmark Enviro Award recipient when they were awarded the Silver Enviro Mark.

To find out more about joining the Rotorua Sustainable Tourism Charter visit www.sustainableNZ.com or call Gina George on (07) 349 7289.

Visitor Activity Statistics

New Zealand International Visitor Arrivals (IVA) – Aug 08

International visitor arrivals to New Zealand for the month of August 2008 were down 1.4% over August 2007.  Arrivals were up from Korea (up 10.3%).  There were fewer arrivals from UK (down 6.9%), USA (down 5.8%), Japan (down 7.8%), China (down 28.5%) and Germany (down 6.0%).

Rotorua Commercial Accommodation Monitor (CAM) – Aug 08

Visitor arrivals to Rotorua commercial accommodation providers for the month of August 2008 were down 1.2% over August 2007.  Domestic visitor nights were up 6.4% and international visitor nights were down 11.1%, resulting in a 1.4% decrease in visitor nights overall. Nationally, visitor nights spent in commercial accommodation for the same period decreased 3.9%.

Rotorua Attraction Monitor – Aug 08

Visits to Rotorua Attraction Monitor participant businesses for the month of August 2008 were down 17.0% over August 2007.  For the same period domestic attraction visits were down 11.9% and international attraction visits were down 19.7%. 

Most of the tourism monitors are freely available by subscription and can be downloaded from rotoruaNZ.com. 

For more information about Rotorua visitor statistics or to subscribe to any of the monitors please contact Gina on DDI (07) 349 7289  or 

Events – November 2008

Speedway Fireworks Opening Meeting
A LITTLE RACING AND A LOT OF FIREWORKS
Date: Saturday, November 1
Venue: Paradise Valley Raceway

The New Zealand Aria
NZ’S LARGEST CLASSICAL SINGING COMPETITION
Date: Sunday, November 2
Venue: Rotorua Convention Centre

Bike the Lake
SCENIC, YET CHALLENGING CYCLE AROUND LAKE ROTORUA
Date: Sunday, November 9
Venue: Rangiuru Street, outside the Ibis Hotel
entrance

GLOBALfest
A LIVING, BREATHING GLOBAL VILLAGE
Date: Saturday, November 15
Venue: Rotorua International Stadium

Rotorua to Ohope Fun Ride
100KM CYCLE FROM ROTORUA TO OHOPE BEACH
Date: Sunday, November 16
Venue: Rotorua BMX Park, Te Ngae Road

International Trout Fishing Tournament
THREE DAY FAMILY TROUT FISHING TOURNAMENT
Dates: November 20-23
Venue: Arawa Park Racecourse

TriNZ My Sport Series
FROM NERVOUS NOVICES TO EXPERIENCED ELITES
Date: Sunday, November 23
Venue: Blue Lake

For more information and to check out the latest events go to rotoruaNZ.com/events

Dates for the diary

Blue = Destination Rotorua Marketing participation

2008

17 - 23 October, Frontline Training, Asia

30 October, C & I Showcase, Wellington

7 – 9 November – Backpacker Expo, Sydney

12 - 14 November, Big Boys Toys consumer show, Auckland

20 - 23 November, World Travel Mart, London

20 – 23 November, China International Travel Mart, Shanghai

8 - 11 December, International Luxury Travel Mart, France

2009

27 March - 5 April, Kiwilink USA, Vancouver & Los Angeles

8 - 11 June, TRENZ, Auckland

Recipient and sender details

We have collected your contact details. This information is collected to enable us to keep you up to date with tourism news pertinent to the Rotorua tourism market and keep you informed of the activities of the Destination Rotorua Tourism Marketing office. We will not disclose your contact details to third parties.

Ruth Crampton
Assistant General Manager
Destination Rotorua Tourism Marketing
Private Bag 3007, Rotorua
Phone +64 7 349 7280
Fax +64 7 349 4133

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