Ingrid Tiriana: Picking up the correct attitude

A recent holiday highlighted the need for any place where tourism is a key economic driver to ensure everyone who lives and works there is doing what they can to make visitors feel welcome.

Hubby and I had a fabulous few days in Melbourne, a bustling city full of character, culture, a huge variety of things to see and do and yes, let's not forget hordes of shops spread far and wide across the city.

The one thing that marred our trip was grumpy taxi drivers. As hubby was still recovering from knee surgery we weren't able to do too much walking and were forced to take a lot of taxi rides, many of them fairly short distances.

We decided that for any fare that totalled under $10 we would pay $10 regardless, to make up for it being a short fare. Of the more than 10 taxi drivers we encountered, just one was friendly and obliging.

The rest made it obvious our short trip was a nuisance and several asked us where we were going before we got into their cars, presumably so they could move us along if not far enough.

Luckily, a staff member at our hotel had told us to get in first and then tell them where we wanted to go. He said hotel staff calling for taxis for guests routinely said they were going to the airport - otherwise there was no guarantee a taxi would show up.

A couple of drivers, when we said where we wanted to go, said they didn't know where that was and made only half-hearted attempts to find out.

Fortunately we always had a good idea of where we needed to be. One taxi driver tried to dump us at the wrong end of the long street our hotel was on and was most put out when we insisted he take us to the hotel door.

The drivers invariably became a lot friendlier when we handed over a $10 note for a $5 fare and told them to keep the change.

Suddenly they hoped we had a nice day - a case of too little, too late. The grumpy taxi drivers didn't ruin our holiday but it was a real disappointment in an otherwise very welcoming and friendly city.

Taxi drivers are often among the first people you encounter on holiday and can be a great source of information, recommending places to visit or things to do. The last thing a tourist town or city needs is to give a bad early impression.

Our Melbourne experience got me thinking that it's not just staff working at the likes of hotels and tourist attractions who need to be educated about providing good services to tourists but also others indirectly benefiting from tourism - such as taxi drivers and local residents.

I've never had any problems with Rotorua taxi drivers but I have witnessed and heard of locals being less than friendly towards or about tourists.

People often struggle to see the big picture and in Rotorua, tourism is part of the big picture, an industry that affects all of us in some way. We have created a city around tourism, we have generations of families who have worked in the industry.

It would be nice to think everyone who lives and works here could acknowledge that and play a part in ensuring it continues. We want every visitor to enjoy the genuine hospitality of those who live here because we need them to keep coming.

Ingrid Tiriana is a freelance writer based in Rotorua.