Rotorua soaring high on international visitor activity
Famously Rotorua domestic marketing campaign producing results.
Rotorua visitor numbers and spend for the month of June show local businesses enjoyed strong growth from international visitors, with particularly good results in the Chinese, North American and Japanese markets.
The Chinese market led the growth in visits to Rotorua's attractions and activities for June with 27,600 visits, an increase of 6600 or 31 per cent over the same period last year. The North American and Japanese markets also showed good growth with visits increasing 1700 and 1000 respectively.
For the same period, the value of electronic card purchases in Rotorua by international visitors increased 41 per cent (11 per cent nationally), with the strongest percentage growth, 184 per cent, occurring in the non-tourism' category of spending (17 per cent nationally).
It's fantastic to see Rotorua tourism operators enjoying such positive results, reinforcing Rotorua's position as a must do' destination on international visitor itineraries, says Destination Rotorua general manager, Oscar Nathan. Not only are international visitors ticking off their bucket lists, but the expenditure statistics also indicate they're spreading their dollars around our community, and in a variety of local businesses.
Commercial accommodation statistics released last week show Rotorua's accommodation providers enjoyed good growth for June over the same month last year. Rotorua's total visitor nights were up 13,100 nights, or 14 per cent, to 109,100 nights compared to a three per cent increase nationally.
Again, it was Rotorua's international visitors who lead the way in commercial accommodation growth with a 27 per cent increase in visitor nights (eight percent increase nationally), but Rotorua's domestic market also performed well with a six per cent increase in visitor nights (one percent nationally).
Our Famously Rotorua domestic marketing campaign continues to evolve across multiple channels and is resulting in Rotorua consistently outperforming domestic benchmarks, said Mr Nathan. In the past week, the RotoruaNZ Facebook page reached 110,000 followers, making Facebook a key platform for engaging with Rotorua ambassadors, and positioning Rotorua among New Zealand's leading destinations for social media marketing."