Rotorua yens for Japanese

Japanese tourists enjoy the farm show at Rotorua's Agrodome. Picture / Alan Gibson

Tourism leaders are looking at ways of attracting Japanese tourists back to Rotorua.

Nationally, Japanese tourist numbers are down by about 10 per cent.

However, Destination Rotorua tourism marketing general manager Don Gunn told the Daily Post that Japanese visitors - one of Rotorua's biggest markets - were down by 26.5 per cent on last year.

One of the main reasons for the slump was Air New Zealand stopping flights from Nagoya in Japan to New Zealand.

Japanese visitors have to pay more than $200 on top of their flights to Auckland or Christchurch if they want to travel to Rotorua.

Mr Gunn and others in Rotorua's tourism industry recently met Japanese tour operators in Auckland.

They now plan to meet Air New Zealand management to see if a "better deal" can be arranged for Japanese tourists who want to visit Rotorua.

While there has been a downturn in the Japanese market, in other markets such as Australia, the US, Britain and in particular, China, the trend is upwards for Rotorua, and in most cases nationally as well.

Tourism New Zealand officials working in each of the five countries gave presentations at the first day of the Tourism Industry Conference in Wellington.

New Zealand's fastest-growing tourism market is China.

In 1999, 16,000 Chinese visited. In the past year there have been 100,000, and that number is predicted to be 236,000 in 2012.

Most Chinese visit New Zealand in groups. They tend to spend only three days here, tagging their trip on to the end of a five-day trip in Australia.

Their three days in New Zealand generally includes a day in Rotorua, but they have limited time to see the sights.

An Air New Zealand flight from Shanghai to Auckland is being introduced this year.

It is hoped the flights will attract more independent travellers who are not controlled by tour companies and who will choose to only travel to New Zealand.

Meanwhile, Australians are coming to Rotorua in droves, and the city's tourism industry is to contribute $100,000 towards Tourism New Zealand's What's On campaign in Australia.


Japanese tourists

Fewer than 150,000 Japanese tourists arrived in New Zealand in the year to April.

This was an 8.1 per cent drop on the previous 12 months and the lowest annual total since 2000.