THUMBS UP THUMBS DOWN

SKYCITY celebrated its 10th birthday in February of this year. Special birthday themed fireworks were set off to commemorate the milestone. A big thumbs up from all at micenz.net for not only making it to 10 years but for continuing to deliver a quality product. And while we’re at it, thumbs up to the Royal Lakeside Novotel Rotorua which also celebrates 10 years of operation in 2006.

Thumbs Down to Taupo District Council for introducing hiked up landing fees at Taupo Airport. While the council says the extra money is needed to repay a $100,000 deficit, the Airport Users’ Group says costs at the council-owned airport are already almost twice as much as other similar sized facilities. The group says many operators are refusing to pay the new charge. The group was concerned that some users of the airport, including Air New Zealand subsidiary Eagle Airways and some tourism operators, might reduce or cancel their flights. It had approached parliament’s Regulations Review Committee to try and stop the fee being introduced at the time of going to press.

Thumbs Up to Rotorua for winning the coveted TRENZ tradeshow for May 2007. New Zealand’s biggest tourism industry tradeshow is to be held at the Rotorua Energy Events Centre, the first time it will be held outside Auckland and Christchurch. Destination Rotorua Tourism Marketing won the bid together with Event Venues Rotorua and industry leaders after months of hard work. The annual event will bring about 800-plus international travel buyers and New Zealand tourism-based businesses together, as well as up to 60 international and domestic media.

To any talk of making participants on educationals to New Zealand destinations pay a portion of the cost of having them on the educational. This has apparently been raised because of reports that some hoteliers are unhappy with fully “hosting” famil participants for extended periods, and that while airlines are willing to provide free seats to participants, the cost of airport taxes (particularly from Australia) still have to be paid by somebody. Hoteliers (and bureaux) should remember that showcasing their facilities and their destination can potentially lead to big business, and that even if the programme is FOC there are still significant costs to participants. The cost of taxis to their local airport can be expensive (the writer of this article doesn’t get much change out of $100 for an airport taxi ride). And there are ancillary costs like phone calls, airport meals (depending on the time of departure), and of course the all-important cost of time out of the office (which is often made up at the participant’s expense). An educational is an expensive exercise but we’re told on good authority that they most definitely work!

We should give a big congratulations to the city of Christchurch and the Christchurch & Canterbury Convention Bureau after recording a spectacular end to 2005 – its best on record in terms of conventions secured for the region. In the third quarter of 2005 Christchurch achieved a record 217 conferences and 16,941 delegates, with figures showing a huge 35 per cent increase in the number of delegates from Australia compared with the same quarter in 2004.