Tourism ad brings hidden Rotorua beauty to life

FAMOUSLY: (ABOVE) Te Rina West shows off Rotorua in the new Famously Rotorua commercials, which were screened in front of tourism industry members last night. Photo / STEPHEN PARKER

Million-dollar campaign aims to attract more Aucklanders

A million-dollar advertising campaign will hit the screens on Monday to hopefully entice more domestic visitors to Rotorua.

The Famously Rotorua campaign has taken 18 months to plan and execute and involves three television commercials starring Te Rina West, the 14-year-old chosen from 300 hopefuls to be the "face of Rotorua".

The first commercial will screen on Monday on TV3 at 6.20pm. It was screened last night at a launch for the tourism industry.

"The success will be more people coming to visit," said Destination Rotorua Marketing consumer marketing manager Brenna Townshend.

"We've found a lot of Aucklanders don't know things as we as locals know the place. We shot the commercial in 30 different locations around the region, we've tried to show some of the unknowns, the lakes, the forests, the beautiful sunsets - things that Aucklanders don't know about."

Among those watching the commercial were Bruce Thomasen, deputy chair of the Rotorua Tourism Committee and operations manager at Skyline Rotorua.

"I think it's exciting and spot on," he said.

"It's for all the markets that we're targeting, to put Rotorua back on the spot as a tourism icon. We've got great stuff to do and this ad nails it. I'm proud and pleased about what they've done. These are exciting times."

Featured in the commercial is the Polynesian Spa, whitewater rafting, Zorb, Rotorua Canopy Tours and the Agrodome, among many others.

The campaign has received more than $1.1 million so far, with $400,000 from the tourism industry, $300,000 from Rotorua District Council and $350,000 in the Destination Rotorua budget.

Those at the launch heard one in four visitors to Rotorua came from Auckland, and that was the market they were predominantly targeting with this commercial.

Destination Rotorua general manager Oscar Nathan said he "got tingles" from watching the commercials.