Polishing the jewel in the tourism crown

Media Release Tauhara North No.2 Trust Group, NZ Māori Tourism

 

22 September 2020

 

 

Tourism businesses in Rotorua have created a joint initiative to attract domestic tourists to help combat the enormous impacts of COVID-19 travel restrictions.

 

Mana Newton is Chief Executive of Tauhara North No.2 Trust Group which owns Tamaki Māori Village and says there is a real need to do something practical and pragmatic during a time of so much uncertainty.

 

“While international tourism has been stopped dead, domestic travel and tourism made up just over two thirds of the sector’s income and has also been severely impacted.

 

“New Zealanders are great travellers and we’ve developed a digital tourism hub to help people reconnect and rediscover Rotorua – if we can make it easy for people to find and book, more of them will come and explore tourism experiences in Rotorua.”

 

The tourism hub is being coordinated with NZ Māori Tourism and Chief Executive Pania Tyson-Nathan says the approach is designed for the travelling tribes of Aotearoa.

 

“New Zealanders would normally spend $6.5 billion a year travelling abroad and many are choosing to spend that money on things like home renovations or upgrading their cars – if we can get even half of that redirected to domestic travel, it will go a long way to ensuring our sector survives and is match fit when international borders reopen.

 

“Friends, Couples or Families are key domestic leisure markets and the digital hub has been designed to offers ideas and deals specific to each of those markets.

 

“Covid-19 has forced innovation, creativity, resourcefulness and kotahitanga – by working as a collective, these Rotorua businesses have been able to tautoko, brainstorm and create a new future of tourism in Rotorua.

 

“The tourism industry started in Rotorua in the 1800’s so its fitting this initiative starts here. We’re also looking at collaboration hubs for Hokianga, Abel Tasman, Hawkes Bay and Tairāwhiti.

 

“Ultimately, we are looking to link each of these regional clusters beneath a korowai of Māori tourism and an appropriate powerful narrative in due course,” says Ms Tyson-Nathan.