Latest / Best of Business / Tania Tapsell: Rotorua mayor on the city's bid to draw back tourists

Transcript

Tania Tapsell: Rotorua mayor on the city's bid to draw back tourists · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks be follow
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Now is one of the North Island's biggest tourism destinations.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: It's been playing host to a big tourism conference this week,
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: but unfortunately, local business owners say the city feels dead
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: with fewer visitors than pre COVID. Tanya Tapsle is the
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: mayor of Rotu and is with us. Now, Hey, Tanya
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: suorder what's going wrong?
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: Well, I don't know what this journalist is up to
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: or on, because we have been absolutely smashing it in
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: tourism here in To be.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: Honest, okay, I'm loving the energy you're bringing to it.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: I'm not really that convinced. When adjusted for inflation, Rotru's
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: visitor spend is sitting at around eighty four percent of
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: what it was pre COVID.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, people say pre COVID this, pre COVID,
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: that that was five years ago. And by the way,
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: we are smashing it with the statistics as well. So
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: we're pretty surprised when we saw all this very negative
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: media article. We surprise people picking little to do. No,
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: but will we fight back? Yes? And actually if you
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: look at the numbers, we're averaging nineteen thousand visitors a day.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: So if you think about the stats that this journalist
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: has chosen to look at, spending data is only on
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: the credit card. Now, how often do we book things
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: using online data? So you know, it's what you choose
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: to peck, and we choose to pick the positive view.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: But what about all the people who are in little
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: truer who are talking to this journalist and saying this
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: is their experience.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: Well, the funny thing about that is she's talking about tourism,
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: but they haven't actually asked anyone in tourism a couple
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: of cafes or rather dodgy looking accommodation provider. And actually
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: we're hosting the biggest tourism industry event in the country
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: at the moment called Trends, and we also are sharing
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: the love on all the great things we're doing. And
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: we've just launched a Northiland collaboration. So when we go
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: all the way around the world promoting at all to do,
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: are we saying, you know what, let's get people around
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: the North Island. So you know, I really pushed back
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: on people thinking and trying to say it Ortred is
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: not doing good. If you have been here anytime recently,
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: you would have seen a significant investment that's gone and
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: the place is looking awesome. I haven't had the Prime
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: Minister visit Orchuda and say, hey, this place has really
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: cleaned itself up. It's looking awesome. It is really going for.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: Golf, Tanya, I understand why. I mean, look, if I
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: was your comms person, because your media manager, I would say, Tanya,
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: you go out there and you dispel that notion immediately
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: and get the tourists back in, right. But why would
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: these cafe owners and the dodgy accommodation provided tell us
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: and tell the journalists that there aren't as many tourists, Like,
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: what's in it for them to talk down your town
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: other than to tell the truth.
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: Look, it's easy for people to dig their own hole. Right.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: I don't know what day of the week this lady
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: went to go ask us them, But the reality is
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: across our hotels we have seen year on year increases,
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: whether that's occupancy even the daily right that they charge.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: You know, we really are always that you look at
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: at the statistics, we are doing really well and actually
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: even an international visitors, but also do is outpacing the
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: rest of the country. These are stats. These are actually
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: you can find them online very easily, and over the
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: last two months we're actually up fifteen percent a year
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: on air, compared to six percent across New Zealand. So
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: you know, I'm not just out here promoting my destination
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: because I'm the mayor. I'm actually sticking up for what's correct,
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: what's accurate, and actually, like I said, we're smashing it
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: and we will continue to do so.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: Tanya, thanks very much. I appreciate your time. Mate. It's
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Tanya Taps.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: On the Mayor of For more from News Talks at
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: b listen live on air or online, and keep our
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: shows with you wherever you go with our podcasts on Iartradio.