Please distribute to all staff

February 17, 2009

Kia Ora !*FIRSTNAME*!,

Hopefully you’ve seen the Agroventures vehicle around town, pictured right, sporting the new “Rotorua – Feel the Spirit” decal. This is an opportunity open to all operators who have a vehicle for business use and that travels outside of Rotorua. Helps reinforce the destination message and what’s more we pay for it. Contact if you are interested in having one on your vehicle.

Just a reminder too that Tourism NZ management and Regional Managers will be in town to present on the current market. This will be followed by a one hour update by this office on what’s planned for the coming year. The details are 5 March from 8 – 11am at the Energy Events Centre. For more information and RSVPs please contact .

A word of caution, there appears to be a number of advertising opportunities presenting themselves that are a hoax. A few operators have been in touch to check the validity of certain publications. We encourage you to call the office and we'll attempt to clarify any queries you may have. But be vigilant. Ask questions - what's your distribution, website, etc etc and ask for a copy if you're still not convinced.

Applications for Kiwilink India are now open. Click here for more information.
Please advise James if you are proposing to attend.

And finally, Destination Rotorua will again be undertaking some What’s On activity for Autumn in Australia. The theme for this period will be Family & Bonding, so with some of our new family imagery as well as TVC footage, we are working on new banner adverts and a landing page which will make all Australian families see Rotorua as a “must do” destination on any New Zealand holiday.

Hope to see you on the 5th.

Kind regards
Ruth Crampton
Assistant General Manager
DDI 349 7280

In This Issue

UK Cultural Mission

Tourism New Zealand will be running a cultural mission to Europe and the UK in early May and have invited Rotorua to send two operators to join them.

This is a great opportunity for the destination and is the first time we will have been involved in a mission of this kind. The concept is to highlight maori culture and stories as an added value element to a regions natural landscape. The story identified for Rotorua is Ngatoroirangi and you can read the entire story on our website here.

The operators selected to attend are Patrick Tamati who will be representing Te Puia and Hells Gate as well as Stevie Wall from Kaitiaki. All operators have new product of interest to the UK and European markets and were the right fit for the objectives Tourism NZ were hoping to achieve.

We appreciate that there may have been many operators keen to participate individually in this mission. We are very mindful of this and after discussion with TNZ and others, we worked on product that is in keeping with the story, has new product lines, the ability to present the region through performance and together made up the majority of experiences available in the Rotorua region, i.e. culture, geothermal, adventure, spa and nature.

Rotorua to help out Bushfire Victims

Destination Rotorua Marketing (DRTM), in conjunction with MORE FM, plans to invite 50 victims of the Australian bush fires to Rotorua for a week’s holiday.

MORE FM initiated the project and will be holding a public appeal soon, as well as liaising with Rotorua businesses to raise money. “Everyone has been affected by this tragedy, including many Rotorua residents,” Mediaworks Rotorua operations manager Paul Hickey says. “We believe this appeal provides an opportunity for locals to show how caring our community is, by reaching out to some the victims of this tragedy.”

DRTM will assist with arranging attractions and accommodation.

MORE FM announcer and promotions co-ordinator Eddie Young is working with media in relevant parts of Victoria to encourage people to nominate worthwhile cases.
It is expected the selected people will be in Rotorua in May this year. If you’d like to play a part in this initiative, email .

International activity planned

The international trade calendar is starting to hot up so some of the activities we’ll be involved with shortly are:

Melbourne Backpacker Expo – 21/22 February
A show attracting international backpackers as well as Australian travellers looking at destinations off the beaten track.

Australian Consumer Expos – 14/15 Mar Sydney, 21/22 Mar – Melbourne
Two shows talking directly to the traveller who are planning future travel. Also exhibiting are travel agents who offer attractive buy now deals to New Zealand. Kirra Tours will be exhibiting and will offer a ‘Thermal Explorer Highway’ package.

Kiwilink North America – 25 Mar – 5 Apr
For the first time Kiwilink this year will take in Vancouver. This is purely focussed at trade and product managers - James Fitzgerald from the office will be attending.

South American Roadshow – 28 Apr – 8 May
In conjunction with Kangaroo Tours, NZ operators will be attending a Roadshow in South America. A collective of Rotorua products including DRTM will help fund Jason Baker from Hell’s Gate to attend this event.

Working on now:

UK / USA Roadshow – September 2009
DRTM is looking at take a Rotorua product roadshow to these markets later in the year. If you are interested in attending, please email .

Rotorua info on your website

As mentioned in last months email we have developed a Rotorua section for insertion in your website to help sell the region and get a consistent message to all visitors to your website.

To view a working model and for instructions on how to insert this into you website please visit rotoruaNZ.com/trade/rotoruaInfo.php where you can choose a square version or a rectangular version to fit the space you have available.

It is as simple as copying the code that is shown in the text boxes above your preferred shape of website widget and pasting that into the HTML source code of your webpage. You may require your web developers assistance with this.

If you do not have a Rotorua section on your website can we please ask that you consider this next time you have some maintenance work done on your site as it is important to all be pushing the same message. We will all benefit if we all are actively promoting Rotorua.

Any questions regarding this please contact James at

C & I update

C&I Planner 2009 - The latest issue of the Planner is presently being mailed out to PCO’s, Corporate’s and association’s as you read this. A copy will be sent to all advertisers shortly.

Famils – Last week Melissa was out of the office for three days hosting 2 different famils. Thank you to all those involved as the feedback from those on famil has been exceptional and it is great to see groups (Both Conference and Incentive, Domestic and International), looking at Rotorua for the coming year.

AIME – Just a reminder that both Ruth and Melissa will be out of the office for Aime this week.

Agent Familiarisations

21 January – Henare Johnson, TNZ WLG

23rd – 26th January – Infinity – Brisbane

2 – 4 Februrary – Monica Armesto & Anna Agnew, TNZ WLG

Media Update

February is looking extremely busy with famils from various markets such as Japan and South America. Itineraries for most of these have been finalised but there are plenty more on the horizon. Please contact Justine for further details.

There’s plenty happening on the editorial front too, with Rotorua features coming up in Weekend , Cuisine and North and South magazines. Rotorua also featured in last week’s issue of Tempo, the Waikato Times’ weekly lifestyle publication.

Several members of the TNZ media team will be in Rotorua for a group famil later this year. This is in the initial planning stages so any operators wanting to register please contact Justine. New products are preferred as the TNZ team is interested solely in fresh angles to promote to media.

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.

The latest media results are available on our website.
To view these go to: rotoruaNZ.com/media/results

Log in: operator
Password: result

Visitor Activity Statistics – December 2009

New Zealand International Visitor Arrivals (IVA) – Dec 08

International visitor arrivals to New Zealand for the month of December 2008 were up 1.6% over December 2007. Arrivals were up from Australia (up 5.6%), Germany (up 8.8%) and China (up 1.8%). There were fewer arrivals from UK (down 4.5%), USA (down 0.9%), Japan (down 14.4%), and Korea (down 34.2%).

Rotorua Commercial Accommodation Monitor (CAM) – Dec 08

Visitor arrivals to Rotorua commercial accommodation providers for the month of December 2008 were down 2.5% over December 2007. Domestic visitor nights were up 7.2% and international visitor nights were down 13.5%, resulting in a 4.2% decrease in visitor nights overall. Nationally, visitor nights spent in commercial accommodation for the same period decreased 2.8%.

Rotorua Attraction Monitor – Dec 08

Visits to Rotorua Attraction Monitor participant businesses for the month of December 2008 were down 4.6% over December 2007. For the same period domestic attraction visits were down 20.3% and international attraction visits were up 2.5%.

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 – March 2009

Noelex 25 National Championships
EXCITING YACHTING ACTION
Dates: 6-7 March
Venue: Lake Rotorua

Rotorua Festival of Arts - Te Ihi Te Wehi
AMAZING ACTS, EVENTS, STREET THEATRE AND EXHIBITIONS
Date: March 7-21
Venue: Various venues around Rotorua

Kingsgate Hotel Rotorua Half Marathon
CHALLENGING OFF ROAD HALF MARATHON AND FUN RUN OPTIONS
Date: Sunday, March 8
Venue: Waipa Mill Car Park, Whakarewarewa Forest

2009 IFDS World Blind Sailing Championships
INTERNATIONAL CREWS COMPETE IN THIS PRESTIGIOUS EVENT
Date: March 12-21
Venue: Lake Rotorua

Rotorua Walking Festival
FANTASTIC WALKING TRACKS & GREAT HOSPITALITY
Dates: 21-22 March
Venue: Neil Hunt Park, Tarawera Road

AY UP Lights 24 Hour Rotorua
NZ’S ONLY SUMMER 24HR MOUNTAIN BIKE RELAY
Date: March 28-29
Venue: Whakarewarewa Forest

NZDBA National Dragon Boat Championships
BRIGHTLY COLOURED DRAGON BOATS COMPETING FOR NATIONAL HONOURS
Dates: 28-29 March
Venue: Blue Lake, Rotorua

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

Dates for the diary

Blue = Destination Rotorua Marketing participation

2009

17 – 18 Feb, AIME, Melbourne

21 – 22 Feb, Backpacker Expo, Melbourne

14 – 15 March, Consumer Travel Xpo, Sydney

19 – 20 March, Seatrade, Miami

21 – 22 March, Consumer Travel Xpo, Melbourne

27 March – 5 April, Kiwilink North America, Vancouver & Los Angeles

28 Apr – 8 May, South American Roadshow, South America

8 – 11 June, TRENZ, Auckland

22 – 23 July, Meetings, Auckland

11 – 12 August, ITOC Conference, Gisborne

7 – 11 September, Kiwilink India, India

7– 8 October, CINZ Conference, Blenheim

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 Marketing office. We will not disclose your contact details to third parties.

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