Rotorua biggest tourist draw

Tourists flock to Rotorua

Rotorua's tourism industry is tracking "significantly" above national averages in all key measures, according to Destination Rotorua's chief executive. Mark Rawson said that as well as an increase in the volume of tourists from May 2014 to May 2015, there was an increase in the amount of time tourists were spending in Rotorua.

"For the last 12 months tourism has been up. Rotorua has been consistently out-performing the national average for a large amount of time.

"There are less big shopping tour groups and more higher value markets, and the other thing that's driving value in the international market, our more traditional markets - the likes of the US and Germany - are starting to come back."

The Chinese market spend was up 300 per cent from last year, Mr Rawson said.

He said international electronic card spend from May 2014 to May 2015 was up 28.6 per cent while the national average rise was 16.7 per cent.

The domestic card spend was up 8.4 per cent, against a national average growth of 4.5 per cent.

Rotorua's commercial accommodation visitor numbers were up 7.3 per cent, compared with 5 per cent nationally.

"It is the first time in a number of years that we have been able to present all of our key measures and that all of them are up and above the national average significantly. We haven't had sustained growth like that for a number of years," Mr Rawson said.

Rotorua Association of Motels president Barry Mabey said motels also experienced this growth, although June had been low. "It's been a reasonable year, not exceptional. Still need more growth and unfortunately June was low foraccommodation providers."

Skyline Rotorua general manager Bruce Thomasen said they had seen growth in all areas.

"We're winning more than our market share of arrivals into the country and getting more growth than other regions in terms of transactional spend. It reflects the investment the city has made, it reflects the investment individual properties have made.

"Strong domestic growth. Our visitation reflects what arrives into the city, and all the city's traditional markets - Germany, USA, UK and Australia. We have all good growth out of Southeast Asia. The good news is we have an extra 100,000 seats flying out of Singapore so Southeast Asia and India are looking good for growth."

Tourism growth May 2014 - May 2015 (against national average)

* Chinese market spend up 300 per cent .
* International electronic card spend up 28.6 per cent (16.7 per cent).
* Domestic card spend up 8.4 per cent (4.5 per cent).
* Domestic spend up 6.7 per cent (4 per cent).
* International spend up 8 per cent (7 per cent).
* Commercial accommodation visitor numbers up 7.3 per cent (5 per cent).