Tourist promotion considered

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 11, Issue 513, 23 November 1993, Page 15

Tourist promotion considered

Twenty-five operators of local businesses involved in the hospitality and recreational industry met at Beechers Lodge in Ohakune last Wednesday evening to consider ways in which visitors can be attracted to this area and, once here, ways of keeping them here by encouraging them to extend their length of stay. The meeting, convened by the local accommodation industry (hotels, motels, chalets) invited members of local outdoor sport and recreational activities (canoeing, trekking, biking, climbing, skiing etc) to get together and share ideas as to how a campaign of tourist promotion can be coordinated. It became obvious, during the course of discussion in which everyone introduced themselves and described their own involvement in providing accommodation, catering and outdoor activities, that the two groups had not previously been fully aware of each other's roles in the local hospitality and tourist promotion industry. It was agreed that there were two main objectives: to attract visitors to this area and to keep them here for as long as possible by providing them with information about the many and varied activities available in the Ruapehu region. The first objective - to attract visitors from other places - was felt to be the responsibility of the District's marketing manager and accordingly a brochure was currently being produced which would be distributed throughout New Zealand in visitor information centres. As far as the second objective was concerned it was pointed out that, at present, many visitors stay for only one

or two nights because either their pre-arranged travel plans don't allow an extra day or two or they are not aware of what recreational and sporting activities are available to them. It was agreed the solution to this problem was to present them with as much information about local activities as possible as soon as they arrive either at the places where they first enquire about accommodation (the Visitor Centres etc) or at the accommodation houses (motels, hotels, . hostels etc) themselves. However, the meeting agreed that instead of handing each visitor a handful of brochures from different operators, the information should be, at least initially, in the form of a single, ready-reference list of all the activities available. This A4 sheet would list the activity and give only the basic information such as address and telephone number of the activity/operator and where further information about the activity can be obtained. This would mean that at a single glance a visitor, instead of wading through a number of different brochures some of which may be of no interest, while other activities may be missed altogether, can see at a glance a complete range of the recreational activities available. It was proposed that this list, updated every fortnight or so, would be handed to all visitors as they checked in to their accommodation. If they were then interested in any activity they could make contact with the activity-operator themselves or