Editorial: Awards worth effort

Photo / Thinkstock

We're very lucky in Rotorua to have such a wide selection of cafes and restaurants available to choose from when eating out.

As a popular tourist destination, it makes sense to cater for a range of different appetites. As a popular tourist destination, we also offer a wide variety of accommodation choices. We get a lot of visitors, both domestic and international, and it makes sense to provide options for a range of budgets and requirements.

Hospitality is our thing. If any city or town needs to get it right, it's this one.

And by and large, our providers do a fantastic job. Check out any of the finalists - and particularly the winners - at the local hospitality awards.

But at next month's national hospitality awards - held in Rotorua - our best and brightest hospitality stars won't be gracing the winner's podium.

Of the city's 37 members of the Hospitality Association, only one entered the awards.

The only finalists from the wider region are from Taupo and Waihi Beach.

Entry to the awards is free but I don't know how complex the process is. Certainly in journalism, entering industry awards can be a long, involved process.

In the end, as we've discovered, the effort is often worth it.

This year we are right behind a local initiative to promote, celebrate and encourage good service.

The Raising the Bar campaign is a positive way to ensure our city's businesses have the advice, ability and incentive to provide friendly, efficient and high-level service.

It would have been great to have been able to celebrate our businesses' success and see great service rewarded and recognised on the national stage.

Maybe next year.