"People are sitting up and taking notice of Rotorua at the moment and I'm confident that this is the start of a new era for us," she said.
Other economic indicators released include promising trends for house sales. For the June quarter Rotorua house sales were up 52 per cent on the same period last year, and up 17 per cent for the 12-month period, compared to an 8.3 per cent increase New Zealand-wide.
The report stated Rotorua's property market was "in good shape" and the company forecasted further housing demand in coming months.
Property finder and Rotorua Property Investors Association president Debbie Van den Broek said the upward trend for house sales was good for the city.
"The housing market has been flat-lining for a long time so to see it start to pick up and show signs of growth is really positive for the city's economy.
"Seeing an upward trend also makes people want to invest more capital into their properties to keep them nicer, warmer and well-maintained."
The Infometrics report showed residential building consents were also well up, with an increase of 17 per cent for the June year compared to New Zealand-wide figures of 7.9 per cent growth.
Rotorua's tourism industry continues to show good results with the city recording a 9.9 per cent hike in visitor nights - the highest among the country's top 10 visitor destinations, and 8.6 per cent growth for the 12 months period.
However jobs remain a challenge for Rotorua with the unemployment rate sitting at 7.9 per cent for the year and the number of people actively seeking jobs up 3.1 per cent while nationally job seeker numbers have come down 3.4 per cent.
Mrs Chadwick said while the job situation was still lagging behind, it would seem likely that the increasing growth in tourism, and some of the recently announced major projects will need significant numbers of employees in the near future.
"I remain hopeful that the lag in employment growth is a temporary one and things will improve once these projects come online.
"However overall, Rotorua people can pat themselves on the back for what they are doing to drive progress, and feel confident and proud that we're heading for much better times."
Rotorua Chamber of Commerce chief executive Darrin Walsh said the report was fantastic news for Rotorua as a city.
He believed a driving factor was tourism, which was bringing more people to the city and driving the retail spend.
Mr Walsh said the report echoed what was being seen and felt around the city with a renewed sense of optimism and confidence among businesses.
"We are seeing and feeling it, now the statistics are confirming it. We know that Rotorua is going well. There's a lot of confidence. People in business are very happy with how things are going."
Mr Walsh said topping the country was a surprise but tourism had been through a strong growth period.
"It is the result of a lot of hard work that has gone on in the background."
Mr Walsh said while the city had great reason to celebrate, the work wasn't over.
"It's a bit like a half-time chat in rugby. We've done well in the first 40 minutes, but then there is the second 40 to go and you still need to keep your head in the game. Now we need to bring it home."
He said the previous three and a half years had been stagnant, with the growth happening over the past eight to 10 months.
"It's been fantastic but we need it to continue for another one to two years."
While a lagging dairy industry had been signalled as a problem, Mr Walsh said because other sectors were doing well, it wouldn't have as much of an impact as a couple of years ago.
"Two years ago if we had taken that hit it would have been catastrophic for our community."
-View the full report at https://ecoprofile.infometrics.co.nz/Rotorua+District/QuarterlyEconomicMonitor
