Poverty Bay is now the Sunrise Coast

First Light Tourism is doing a hard sell for the 21st century, reports HELEN VAUSE.

When the great millennium bash winds up in Gisborne, will the high profile of the city leave town with the departing crowds?

Marketing the city where the year 2000 will break first is currently an enormous effort by a small team with huge energy and optimism.

Current estimates are that there will be about 120,000 visitors during the celebrations.

It is the hottest focus the region has ever seen and from the work in progress there is a reasonable expectation that the profile of Gisborne will be permanently raised, putting it on the tourism map in the future.

The marketing of Gisborne is largely being driven by Maxine Wallis, chief executive of First Light Tourism, Eastland. She came to Gisborne with experience, expertise and a bigger marketing objective than just selling the turn of the century celebrations.

"The millennium spotlight brought an opportunity to be grabbed to market a region that has long been overlooked," she said.

"The fact that the sun rises first here is our edge, but the region has much more to offer as a destination."

The marketing strategy has involved compiling a list of "product" and promoting that to the world without paid advertising. On paper, the product sounds fantastic - magnificent beaches and scenery, great climate, good fishing, serious surf, fine wines and food, excellent hiking. It is the chardonnay capital of the country, with numerous boutique wineries, it boasts New Zealand's first commercially grown black truffles, there are hot springs and beautiful bush - and every new day will break first in Gisborne.

When Maxine Wallis began putting the strategy in place, the first task was to collect stunning pictures to help sell the place. Unlike some of this country's more famous destinations, the area had little in the way of high quality scenic photographs to show.

Marketing the product is now well underway with an intensive media campaign.

Wallis said two film crews a week on average visited Gisborne from television channels including CNN, ITV, Thai Television and the BBC. There have been many food and wine writers and inquiries from many publications, both general and specialist.

Tomorrow, for example, 21 overseas journalists will be in town to see what's on offer. The profile of Gisborne and the Sunrise Coast is definitely up, regardless of what the cynics say.

In marketing objectives the aim is to get on to the destination shopping list.

The internet is playing a part in the marketing drive. Wallis said there was a steady stream of inquiries coming from independent travellers hitting Gisborne's web site.

She said the target market for future tourism in the area was small niche tours - "high yield, low volume" - or small groups with plenty to spend.

While Gisborne lacks an international standard hotel, there are upmarket lodges and new bed and breakfast operators setting up attractive accommodation. The cafe business is well established and a pre-millennium makeover is giving the city a much more presentable face. At the same time, tourism operators are working hard to putting together the right sort of packages for a competitive destination.

"We have attractive packages offering a wide variety of experiences," said Wallis. Beyond fishing, food, wine, scenery and culture, she envisaged marae welcomes with a crayfish lunch for tourists and surfing packages targeted at Californians.

"There are new operators looking at opportunities here who have the expertise to put together good packages. There is new skill and professionalism now behind developing and promoting what there is to offer."

For the millennium celebrations, the local Year 2000 office working alongside Wallis and First Light Tourism is coordinating more than 70 events over a three-week period.

When it is all over, those involved expect a 10 per cent increase in international visitors.

"It is my goal to really establish the profile of the Sunrise Coast just like the Gold Coast. The sunrise concept is our edge and packaging that successfully is the ongoing challenge in the same way that other destinations have been marketed on a unique point of difference," says Wallis.

"It is definitely time to shrug off the unfortunate Poverty Bay label that Captain Cook left us with."

Putting aside the optimism of First Light's exuberant CEO, the general consensus on the marketing campaign is that it will result in a big push for Gisborne as a visitor destination both nationally and internationally.

Gisborne Herald editor Iain Gillies gets constant feedback from the local business community.

"There is always a lot of conjecture around marketing, but generally the mood here is very positive. There is new confidence and feeling that there is a very good job being done for this area.

"From the international publicity that is filtering back, there's no doubt people are hearing about Gisborne and what a fabulous place it is. It has everything that makes the real New Zealand, and through stories that are appearing overseas, that message is getting out."