"The collaborative partnership effort with the Inner City Focus Group, local businesses and retailers to bring new life and vigour to the inner city, was starting to pay off - particularly our focus on strengthening Tutanekai St as the connecting 'spine' of the city."
She said the test would be whether these numbers could be sustained in the future, and hopefully built on further.
Inner City Focus Group spokesman Mike Steiner said the results were a reversal of recent trends for declining pedestrian volumes.
"We're hopeful that this is the start of a turnaround ... In the last 12 months or so there's been a huge effort by business operators and the council that's giving Rotorua a much needed shot in the arm, but we still have a long way to go."
The next step was to encourage innovative, entrepreneurial retailers and other businesses to increase their offering in Rotorua's inner city, he said.
Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick said the council was on track to achieve the key inner city priority goal to develop a vibrant city heart that attracts people and activity.
Key measures of success included fewer empty shops, more people on the streets, retailer optimism, more inner city diversity, and perceptions that the inner city was an exciting and safe place to be, she said. "The feedback I'm getting from retailers, food outlets, other business operators, shoppers and visitors alike, is that our inner city is a now a much more inviting and lively place than in the past."
Projects like the free parking trial, intersection upgrades, more pedestrian-friendly street crossings, Eat Streat, the Night Market, colourful murals, sculptures, tag-free walls, new public seating, landscaping and street plantings had all contributed to the growth in foot traffic, she said.
She said other initiatives on the horizon, like the proposed Green Corridor, cycle links, improved bus routes, central tourist coach stops, and more conveniently located campervan parking, should help keep the momentum going.
