Council tourism department restructured to match new direction

Rotorua District Council (RDC) has revamped its tourism structure, simplified the department’s operating name and commenced a search to recruit key people for refocused positions.

The unit is now called simply Destination Rotorua Marketing to reflect not only its continuing role in promoting the district as a tourism destination but in also marketing Rotorua for wider economic opportunities.

RDC economic & regulatory services group manager Mark Rawson says the new structure has been designed to align with the new tourism business plan developed over recent months by the council’s tourism committee. He said the tourism committee, comprising some of the best tourism brains in the country and ably chaired by former Pacific Blue Airlines chief executive Tony Marks, was right behind the revised structure.

Destination Rotorua Marketing will focus its activities on achieving the key outcomes of the new tourism business plan. The plan has identified seven goals for success:

• Increase average room nights and average spend (domestic and international)
• Increase visitor numbers from Auckland by 50,000 (+5%)
• Grow Rotorua’s share of Australian arrivals
• Grow Asian markets (especially China)
• Partnerships with operators from wider-Rotorua region
• Strategic leadership in communication, online marketing and travel search
• Increase ease of access to Rotorua as a visitor destination.

“As well as its tourism focus, Destination Rotorua Marketing’s activities will also complement the district’s new economic growth strategy currently being developed by a group of our city’s business leaders in partnership with the council,” said Mr Rawson.

“While tourism marketing will remain the priority focus for Destination Rotorua Marketing (DRM), we also want to avail ourselves of the complementary opportunities that exist from leveraging a ‘live, work and invest’ message in tandem with the ‘visit’ message.

“In the interim Tania Bui is doing a great job as acting general manager and in the next few weeks we expect to announce the appointment of a new permanent general manager to head DRM, and we’re currently advertising for people to fill three other positions. While DRM’s total number of staff remains unchanged, its new positions and other changes to existing roles reflect the future business needs of the department’s new direction.“

The new positions currently being advertised are:

• Marketing Manager – Rotorua: live, work & invest
• Trade Marketing Coordinator
• Famils & Deals Coordinator

Mr Rawson said anyone interested in applying for one of the positions could download a position description and details of the application process from the Rotorua District Council website click here. Applications close on 8 July.