Committee and Council meeting wraps – 8 May 2024
The latest quarterly update from RotoruaNZ Limited highlighted a number of success stories for the local tourism and business community.
The Rotorua i-Site teams are celebrating significant milestones; having the highest foot traffic of all i-Sites in New Zealand and reaching $1million in retail sales in the first 12 weeks of 2024.
The Fenton Street i-Site recently also took out the top spot in the national sales competition, having the highest percentage of sales in November 2023. Rotorua i-Site competes against 32 other centres in its category including Queenstown, Napier and Wanaka.
The post-Covid return of the international travel market is contributing to that strong growth in i-Site revenue and has resulted in a financially self-sufficient position for the first eight months of the financial year.
Other highlights from RotoruaNZ
- Despite the slower return of domestic and Australian visitors we are seeing a large increase in the number of visitors coming from the United States.
- The post-Covid return of the international travel market is contributing to strong growth in visitor card expenditure.
- A recent international film project brought an estimated $4million into the local economy. RotoruaNZ worked closely with Film Bay of Plenty to attract the production to Rotorua, and the project extended their stay increasing bed nights in local accommodation.
- An upcoming launch of Mai Rotorua, a new set of channels will encourage good news stories and local participation. More information about this exciting opportunity will be shared on 17 May.
Rotorua Regional Airport Limited also reported that the business is well ahead of its annual budget, and its successful completion of the five-yearly Part 139 Recertification.
Read the full quarterly reports from page 10 of the meeting agenda.
Go to this link in the meeting recording to view these parts of the meeting.
View the presentation slides related to this matter here.
Other items on the Committee and Council meeting agendas
Annual report adopted
At a Council meeting held today, elected members adopted Rotorua Lakes Council’s 2022/23 Annual Report which was audited by Audit NZ. The audit was delayed and work is underway to review and improve the process for future annual reports.
You can view the report on this in the meeting agenda as well as the 2022/23 annual report, and you can view the meeting recording here on Council’s YouTube channel.
Community Funding Investment Policy review
The Community and District Development Committee also met today and agreed to adopt the updated Community Funding Policy 2024-2027.
The Policy is reviewed every three years in line with the Long-Term Plan, and sets out funding eligibility criteria and allocation, approval process and expectations for grants provided to local community groups.
Policy updates from this review include closer alignment with this Council’s key priorities, determining scope for funding, the inclusion of social enterprises as eligible applicants, and a review of reporting processes to better reflect community impact. Feedback from local community groups has helped shape the updated Policy.
Go to this link in the meeting recording to view this part of the meeting.
View the agenda related to this matter here (page 54).
Pensioner housing annual rent review
The Committee also resolved to increase weekly rent for tenants in council’s pensioner housing properties. The Committee heard that a CPI adjusted rent increase has not been applied since 2018 due to COVID disruption within the usual three-yearly review. The rise will result in an increase of $19.80 to $29.51 per week. The current rental for a pensioner housing unit is between $86.85 and $129.44 for a single person and $115.48 and $162.76 for a couple, dependent on the type of unit and its location. This is well under market rates.
As per the Residential Tenancies Act 1986, tenants will have sixty days from notification before the increase is applied.
Go to this link in the meeting recording to view this part of the meeting.
View the agenda related to this matter here (page 49).
Also on the agenda:
- Progress reports:
- Community & District Development
- Corporate Services – Culture, Heritage and Mahi Toi