Please distribute to all staff

April 20, 2010

In This Issue

• International Update
• C&I Update
• Trade familiarisations
• Media update
• Visitor Activity Statistics
• Sustainability
• Events - May 2010
• Dates for the Diary

International Update

International Update: For any clarification of any of the information in this section please contact
james@rotoruanz.com

Melbourne Travel Show 10 - 12 April in Melbourne

Craig Hammond and James Fitzgerald attended the show where Rotorua was the only North Island exhibitor. Numbers through the venue were predicted at 12,000 - 15,000 although official figures have not been released yet. There is certainly awareness of Rotorua which would appear to be considered a must do for anyone traveling to the North Island. Many that had already visited the South Island were now looking to experience a North Island only itinerary. This presented a great opportunity to push 3 night stays in Rotorua with these visitors in the vital early stages of planning their holiday. The new DRTM DVD played at the show and consistently drew in crowds to view it.

Australian Trade Marketing

Rotorua continues to feature in a number of trade publications. Over the next 6 weeks Rotorua features in a double page spread in the Jetset catalogue which is distributed to 80,000 jetset customers. Rotorua will also be featuring as 'Destination of the Month' on www.zuji.com.au throughout May. Zuji has 450,000 unique users every month all looking for holiday deals and inspiration.

Joey Rihari recently came out to Rotorua hosting a small group of Business Development Managers and Retail Sales Managers from Sydney based Travel companies. This is the second such DRTM hosted visits. The weekend was a great success showcasing some activities in the Rotorua area these guests were unaware off. This is all part of DRTM's ongoing strategy of creating more opportunities across the entire distribution channel in Australia and has been having some promising results including invitations to present to key travel agents, unprecedented marketing opportunities and stronger relationships with the Australian Travel Trade.

Opportunities

For accommodation providers wanting to get involved in the Zuji promotion and have your business listed on their site please email james@rotoruaNZ.com for more information.

South America

Next week Rotorua will be represented at the Kangaroo Tours Roadshow in Santiago, Chile and Sao Paulo, Brazil where the target is to present Rotorua to at least 200 agents. This is excellent timing with Tourism New Zealand showing signs that they will increase activity within these markets in the very near future and two direct flights from South America daily from South America.

C&I Update

C&I Update: For any clarification of any of the information in this section please contact
denise@rotoruanz.com

Australian sales activity

The last month has been spent visiting Professional Conference Organiser’s and Corporate Companies, the response has been positive with a lot of these either looking at Rotorua as the destination for a future event or very interested in hearing more. Last month a number of proposals were sent to suppliers and these are still being worked on. We have been off to a good start this month with more proposal requests. Rotorua really is being talked about out there in the marketplace as the next hot MICE destination.  Whilst our main focus is Sydney being the port of our direct flights, we will also be going into Melbourne and Brisbane at a later date; we are getting requests for information from both of these destinations.

New Zealand sales activity

In recent weeks Melissa spent time in Auckland and Wellington on sales calls with a very positive response. Those called on in Auckland were a follow on from the Mega Familiarisations back in August, the comments were they loved what Rotorua did for the famil and several have future events that they are discussing with their clients. One Professional Conference Organiser is keen to bring a group of their clients down for an educational in the near future. Wellington sales calls were also very positive for Rotorua and many where pleased to see the Rotorua Convention Bureau. One piece of business has been confirmed already from these sales calls.
Christchurch Sales Calls are scheduled for the week of 26th April.

May Mega Familiarisation

Requests for expressions of interest have been sent out and over 40 potential clients have responded. As we only have 22 seats available the Convention Bureau will be qualifying these clients to ensure the operators are receiving the right people on this familiarisation.

Update and presentation to Industry

In late March the operators who are included in the planner were invited to an update on the activity of the Convention Bureau in the past few months and what the activity plan is for the next couple of months. A reasonable turn out and feedback of those who attended has resulted in a plan to continue these updates every six weeks. The next update is scheduled for Friday 14th May. Venue and time TBC.

Trade Familiarisations

Thank you for those involved and your continued support of Australian Trade Famils to Rotorua.

• INfinity Holidays - Queensland 12 - 14 March
• ANZCRO - SOuth Australia - 17 -20 March
• Newmans Holidays - Victoria - 26 - 28 March
• BDM/Sales Managers - Sydney - 10 - 12 April
• South American Luxury - 26th - 27th March
• Singapore TNZ - 19 -21st March

Media Update

Media Update: For any clarification of any of the information in this section please contact
heather@rotoruanz.com

Record famils

The past two and a half months have seen 46 famils come in through both TNZ and DRTM. Of these, all bar two were international. The biggest swing from last year, with the exception of domestic famils (which saw almost 50% of these in the total), is the UK and Europe media which are on an equal par with Australia’s numbers. The totals here are 9 Australian famils, 9 UK and 7 Europe, with USA at 5 close behind. The rest are Asian-based, or unusual markets as in the case of Argentina, which has had two famils.
There is no doubt that the Rugby World Cup to be held next year is having an impact in terms of media wishing to preview the host country and if, as predicted by TNZ, the consistency of these kinds of famils for the next six months continues, we will host a record number of famils by the time end of the financial year in 2011 rolls around. As it stands, we are at half of our annual average of 80 famils after just two and a half months into the new year, with 61 being the figures for the last six months of 2009 and excluding the first half of January 2010.
There has also been a steady stream of internationally-based documentaries, breakfast shows and other film series being filmed here, on average at least one a month and in March, there were six.

Rugby updates

The Irish game against the NZ Maori in June will be an excellent event to be able to create further avenues of opportunities towards promoting Rotorua as a destination for the supporters of the RWC. We are currently developing a relationship with the NZRU’s communications administrator which should allow us to work independently with a number of UK and Irish-based media during this time. It will also be used to strengthen ties with media whose first port of call once accredited is generally the NZRU, if they can be passed directly to us. To that end, we are now asking operators for specific packages aimed towards those staying either five or the full 10 days. This includes combination packages which can be exposed through media famils at the time of the Irish game written or broadcast in advance for those visitors who will arrive in a year’s time. TNZ is also asking for similar packages and ideas, so now is a great time to advise DRTM of any new products or combinations that you are working on.

Itinerary ideas

A series of itineraries have been created for United Campervans at their request, aiming for the Australia and New Zealand market. We are aware through research done by ourselves and the Holiday Parks Assn that in general many people only stay here one or two nights a week and will often tell the proprietors they wish they’d organized to stay longer. United tell us that all 600 of their vans have already been booked for winter 2011 and that the itineraries are part of a combined effort from all RTO’s to provide these. However, our local holiday parks have expressed an interest in having itineraries provided at the point-of-contact websites which would be useful for when people are creating their holiday time-frames while still overseas or at home.
Work is almost complete in having all 5, 7, 14 day itineraries provided in two age groups, that of the middle-aged or older campervanners and secondly, for the school holiday campervanners. Both groups being sourced are domestic and Australian.

Visitor Activity Statistics

New Zealand Tourism Industry Monitor – Apr 2010

(Source:  Covec – Tourism Industry Monitor Jun 2010)
Results from the NZ Tourism Industry Monitor indicate New Zealand tourism businesses expect demand to increase by 0.4% and profitability to increase by 0.2% for the three months commencing 1 April 2010 over the same period of the previous year.  34% of respondents have a positive outlook of demand increasing over this period, while 30% have a neutral outlook and 36% a negative outlook.  The Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Central Plateau regional outlook for growth in demand is for demand to change -3% to +2%. 

International Visitor Arrivals (IVA) to New Zealand – Feb 2010

(Source:  Statistics NZ – External Migration Apr 2010)
International visitor arrivals to New Zealand for the month of February 2010 were up 4.4% over February 2009.  Arrivals were up from Australia (up 4.3%), China (up 40.6%), Japan (up 0.9%), Germany (up 1.1%) and Korea (up 4.2%).  There were fewer arrivals from UK (down 4.7%), USA (down 1.0%) and Canada (down 3.3%).

Rotorua Commercial Accommodation Monitor (CAM) – Feb 2010

(Source:  Statistics NZ – Commercial Accommodation Monitor Apr 2010)

Visitor nights spent in Rotorua commercial accommodation for the month of February 2010 were up 2.9% over February 2009 (versus +1.5% nationally) - domestic visitor nights were down 13.2% (versus -2.7% nationally) and international visitor nights were up 15.6% (versus +5.9% nationally).  For the same period, most sectors of Rotorua commercial accommodation had positive growth in visitor nights – hotels up 8.1%, motels up 0.3% and holiday parks up 2.8%.  The only sector to have decreased growth was the backpacker sector (down 7.6%).    

Rotorua Attraction & Activities Monitor – Feb 2010

(Source:  APR Consultants  – Rotorua Attraction & Activities Monitor Apr 2010)
Visits to Rotorua Attraction & Activities Monitor participant businesses for the month of February 2010 were up 2.4% over February 2009 - domestic attraction/activity visits were down 16.2% and international attraction/activity visits were up 8.1%.

Upcoming Statistics NZ releases

International Visitor Arrivals to NZ:  March 2010 will be released 23 April 2010
Commercial Accommodation Monitor: March 2010 will be released 12 May 2010

Most of the New Zealand tourism monitors can be freely downloaded from tourismresearch.govt.nz

For more information about Rotorua visitor statistics or to subscribe to any of the Rotorua specific tourism monitors please contact Gina on DDI (07) 349 7289 or gina@rotoruaNZ.com

Sustainability

Kerbside recycling: have your say!

The draft Rotorua District Annual Plan 2010/11 is now open for public submissions.  Contained within the draft Annual Plan is the draft Waste Management and Minimisation Plan, which determines how recyclable waste in the Rotorua district is managed.  Unless strong support by submissions from urban residents is received in favour of kerbside recycling the Rotorua District Council will progress with its preferred option for enlarging the downtown recycling drop-off centre and opening a smaller drop-off centre in Ngongotaha.  For more information on this subject view page six of the Summary and Submission Form, check out Councilor Karen Hunt’s blog and then tell Council what your preferred option is for managing recyclable waste in the Rotorua District.  Either complete a hardcopy submission form and post to Council or complete an online submission.  If sufficient support for kerbside recycling is received from urban residents, Council’s preferred option is for wheelie bin kerbside recycling with separate glass collection (option 3B).  Remember to have your say before submissions close 4pm, 7 May 2010.

Events - May 2010

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

Dates for the diary

Blue = Destination Rotorua Marketing participation

2010

25 - 30 April, South American Roadshow - Brazil and Chile

24th - 27th May, TRENZ - Auckland

22 – 24 June, Meetings 2010 – Auckland

22 – 23 July, Australian Business Events Expo – Sydney

25 - 29 July, UK IMA Workshops - London

2 - 9 August, Grand Pacific Roadshow - Australia

8 September, PAICE Plus Expo – Sydney

13 - 17 October, Kiwilink Asia - Singapore

December, PCO Conference – Tasmania

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.

David Whorwood
Marketing Manager
Destination Rotorua Marketing
Private Bag 3007, Rotorua
Phone +64 7 349 7280
Fax +64 7 349 4133
marketing@rotoruaNZ.com