Latest news with #RotoruaCanopyTours
RNZ News
6 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
'Quite a bump': Rotorua lures more Auckland visitors
Tourist photograph the Tourism Rotorua building. Photo: Andrew Warner Rotorua is experiencing a surge in domestic tourism, with new figures showing an increase in visitor numbers, spending and accommodation occupancy. Local leaders say the boost reflects growing confidence in the city as a destination, following years of disruption from Covid-19 and emergency housing . Figures via RotoruaNZ, the council-controlled tourism organisation, showed an uptick in Kiwis heading to Rotorua for a holiday. "I've received lots of great feedback from locals who have appreciated the boost in business and also seeing Rotorua thrive again," said Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell. The mayor praised the 'Robe Trip' marketing campaign, which was aimed at highlighting Rotorua's standing as a destination for luxury and relaxation. The campaign ran over six weeks in February and March across multiple media, including a television ad featuring Tapsell. According to figures the council released to the Taxpayers' Union in March, the ad cost just under $94,000 to produce and broadcast. RotoruaNZ chief executive Andrew Wilson said they were very pleased with the results of the Robe Trip campaign. About three-quarters (73 percent) of Aucklanders surveyed would consider Rotorua for a holiday or breakaway after the campaign, up from 34 percent pre-campaign. "This was a bold and deliberate move to reposition Rotorua in the minds of New Zealanders - especially young and mid-life Auckland couples - as a destination for luxury, relaxation and indulgence." RotoruaNZ chief executive Andrew Wilson. Photo: Andrew Warner Over the course of the campaign, there was a 9.4 percent increase in visitor spend by Aucklanders in the city and a 5 percent year-on-year rise in hotel occupancy. In comparison, there were 1.4 percent and 4.4 percent decreases respectively across the nation. Spending by domestic visitors from across the whole of New Zealand, not just Auckland, went up 14.3 percent year-on-year in Rotorua in May - compared to a 0.1 percent drop nationally. In addition, 76 percent of New Zealanders surveyed rated Rotorua as appealing to visit, with 35 percent intending to do so in the next 12 months. Traditionally, Rotorua's heritage has marked it as the birthplace of Kiwi tourism, but it had also grown into a mecca for adventure seekers, Wilson said. "The push towards luxury and relaxation is not about abandoning our adventure roots. "It's about expanding our narrative. Rotorua has always been a place of restoration and manaakitanga [hospitality]. We're simply reminding Kiwis of that in a fresh, relatable way," Wilson said. Rotorua Canopy Tours general manager Paul Button. Photo: Andrew Warner The recent rise in domestic tourism has also been noticed by those in the industry. Rotorua Canopy Tours general manager Paul Button said he has seen an improvement domestically compared to 12 months ago. Last year, the country was in the grip of the cost-of-living crisis as households tightened budgets and went without getaways, he said. "I don't think there's one silver bullet," said Button. "Last year, domestically, it fell off. We had an abrupt drop in May and our research suggested it was economy-related. "It's definitely still tough out there and I am not going to pretend it's not but interest rates have dropped and things might be getting better." Button said Rotorua's desirability had also returned. The pandemic had a major impact on the city, while the subsequent period of emergency housing compounded the city's tourism struggles, he said. Emergency housing motels in Rotorua are being wound down by the government, with a plan to stop contracting motels by the end of 2025 . Hennessey's Bar owner Reg Hennessey. Photo: Andrew Warner "A lot less use of motels for social housing has really helped," said Reg Hennessey, owner of the locally famous Hennessey's Irish Bar on Tutanekai St. "This school holiday was good and domestic tourism has definitely picked up, it's taken quite a bump this year. "Now we are just getting the good word back out to New Zealand that it's a safe town and people can always feel safe here because of the way it's operated." Tapsell also highlighted new efforts to attract more international visitors, as Rotorua Lakes Council funded promotion through an economic development rate on short-term accommodation providers. "Tourism and hospitality contribute significantly to jobs in Rotorua," she said. "Attracting visitors can be very competitive, not just to get them to our district, but also to our country. It's important that we don't get complacent, so we've put a lot of effort and smart investment into unique initiatives to promote Rotorua." She said the council was excited to continue to see the results of this. - LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
NZ Herald
6 days ago
- Business
- NZ Herald
Domestic tourism surges in Rotorua as Aucklanders return
The mayor praised the 'Robe Trip' marketing campaign, which was aimed at highlighting Rotorua's standing as a destination for luxury and relaxation. The campaign ran over six weeks in February and March across multiple media, including a television ad featuring Tapsell. According to figures the council released to the Taxpayers' Union in March, the ad cost just under $94,000 to produce and broadcast. RotoruaNZ chief executive Andrew Wilson said they were very pleased with the results of the Robe Trip campaign. About three-quarters (73%) of Aucklanders surveyed would consider Rotorua for a holiday or breakaway after the campaign, up from 34% pre-campaign. 'This was a bold and deliberate move to reposition Rotorua in the minds of New Zealanders – especially young and mid-life Auckland couples – as a destination for luxury, relaxation and indulgence.' Over the course of the campaign, there was a 9.4% increase in visitor spend by Aucklanders in the city and a 5% year-on-year rise on hotel occupancy. In comparison, there were 1.4% and 4.4% decreases respectively across the nation. RotoruaNZ chief executive Andrew Wilson. Photo / Laura Smith Spending by domestic visitors from across the whole of New Zealand, not just Auckland, went up 14.3% year-on-year in Rotorua in May – compared to a 0.1% drop nationally. In addition, 76% of New Zealanders surveyed rated Rotorua as appealing to visit, with 35% intending to do so in the next 12 months. Traditionally, Rotorua's heritage has marked it as the birthplace of Kiwi tourism, but it had also grown into a mecca for adventure seekers, Wilson said. 'The push towards luxury and relaxation is not about abandoning our adventure roots. 'It's about expanding our narrative. Rotorua has always been a place of restoration and manaakitanga [hospitality]. We're simply reminding Kiwis of that in a fresh, relatable way,' Wilson said. The recent rise in domestic tourism has also been noticed by those in the industry. Rotorua Canopy Tours general manager Paul Button said he has seen an improvement domestically compared to 12 months ago. Last year, the country was in the grip of the cost-of-living crisis as households tightened budgets and went without getaways, he said. Rotorua Canopy Tours general manager Paul Button. Photo / Andrew Warner 'I don't think there's one silver bullet,' said Button. 'Last year, domestically, it fell off. We had an abrupt drop in May and our research suggested it was economy-related. 'It's definitely still tough out there and I am not going to pretend it's not but interest rates have dropped and things might be getting better.' Button said Rotorua's desirability had also returned. The pandemic had a major impact on the city, while the subsequent period of emergency housing compounded the city's tourism struggles, he said. Emergency housing motels in Rotorua are being wound down by the Government, with a plan to stop contracting motels by the end of 2025. Hennessey's Irish Bar owner Reg Hennessey. Photo / Andrew Warner 'A lot less use of motels for social housing has really helped,' said Reg Hennessey, owner of the locally famous Hennessey's Irish Bar on Tutanekai St. 'This school holiday was good and domestic tourism has definitely picked up, it's taken quite a bump this year. 'Now we are just getting the good word back out to New Zealand that it's a safe town and people can always feel safe here because of the way it's operated.' Tapsell also highlighted new efforts to attract more international visitors, as Rotorua Lakes Council funded promotion through an economic development rate on short-term accommodation providers. 'Tourism and hospitality contribute significantly to jobs in Rotorua,' she said. 'Attracting visitors can be very competitive, not just to get them to our district, but also to our country. It's important that we don't get complacent, so we've put a lot of effort and smart investment into unique initiatives to promote Rotorua.' She said the council was excited to continue to see the results of this. Mathew Nash is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. He has previously written for SunLive, been a regular contributor to RNZ and was a football reporter in the UK for eight years. – LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
RNZ News
07-05-2025
- Science
- RNZ News
Native jumping spider found in restored Rotorua forest
A new species of native jumping spider has been discovered in a Rotorua forest that's been restored by a local tourism company. Photo: Supplied / Bryce McQuillan Photography A native jumping spider boasting great eyesight and tiny genitalia has been discovered at a Rotorua forest that is being restored. Rotorua Canopy Tours has been working to remove every predator from the Dansey Scenic Reserve for more than a decade. They are now enjoying the fruits of their labour, with new species being discovered as the old growth forest thrives. Lincoln University PhD student Kate Curtis found the new species living under rimu bark while hunting for spiders in the Dansey Scenic Reserve in Rotorua over summer. The forest was part of a years-long restoration project by Rotorua Canopy Tours, and she said it was rich with life and had incredible spider and insect diversity. She has been studying spiders for about seven years, but wanted to dive into taxonomy or describing new species. There are an estimated 250 species of jumping spiders in Aotearoa but only 50 of them are described and fewer than 10 can be reliably identified. "A lot of spiders have complex genitalia and this (species), they're quite simple so it can be quite difficult to tell the difference between species and this is sort of why not much work has been done on them in New Zealand," she said. Male spiders have genitalia called pedipalps that look like they are holding little boxing gloves near their face. The females have a hardened plate on the underside of their abdomen. The male's sperm tube for these jumping spiders was extra small, she said. "They're really difficult to find in the microscope, they're really really small. You almost have to work at different angles to actually find (it)." Paapaakiri leap to hunt their prey so they need better eyesight, Curtis said. "But the flipside of having great eyes when you're a spider is that the genitalia is often simpler and more puny, and their mating rituals more complex. "For scientists, this makes them harder to categorise than other species, but it doesn't appear to be an issue for the spiders themselves." The Paapaakiri male spiders have great eyesight, but in the spider world that often means simple, puny genitalia and elaborate mating rituals. Photo: Supplied / Bryce McQuillan Photography Paapaakiri translates to scaly or flaky bark, a nod to the rimu trees where they make their homes. "Most other native jumping spiders live in vegetation, leaf litter, under rocks, and even high in the mountain ranges so it was unusual to find one specifically living under the rimu bark," she said. "The bark could provide a unique protective microhabitat, offering protection from predators and harsh environmental conditions, as well as an ideal site for ambushing prey." It was her job to look at their structures, photograph, draw, measure and describe all their features so they could be identified in the future. Rotorua Canopy Tours general manager Paul Button said their work started with a promise their founder made more than a decade ago. "He went where there was no foliage in the undergrowth, now it was 12 to 14 feet high. "It's mind-blowing," he said. "It's emotional how much it has come back. When we first started there wasn't a bird, there wasn't a tweet, and now there are birds everywhere." For the past three years, the business has done a collaborative research programme looking at invertebrates, setting traps across the different layers of the forest. So far, they had found 12 species that are new to science. Button said species like native pseudoscorpions used to struggle, but they were bouncing back. "They're about three millimetres long. They're through New Zealand's forests, they don't have a poisonous tail, they've got a poisonous sack in their buttocks," he said. Most of our birds do not have defence mechanisms, but the same could not be said for invertebrates, he said. "They're hardcore. They're the ones with armour and poison and that's where its kind of like the orcs battling in the scene of Lord of the Rings ." For guests who were not keen on eight legged friends, Button said you would hear about the spiders more than you would see them as they talked about the forest as part of the tours. He hoped their success would encourage more tourism operators to help restore the environment they work in. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
NZ Herald
07-05-2025
- Science
- NZ Herald
New spider species discovered at Rotorua Canopy Tours restoration area on Dansey Rd
The specific name paapaakiri referred to the species' occurrence under rimu bark. The species will be scientifically named in Curtis' upcoming published work. For a new species to be categorised by a scientist, they ideally must find both an adult male and female of a new species. To do so, the attending scientists must closely examine the new spider's genitalia; a more trying task when the spider is as meagerly endowed as the paapaakiri. 'It's a bit of a weird thing to talk about but male spiders have genitalia called pedipalps, which are kind of like little boxing gloves up near their face,' Curtis said. 'The female spiders have something called an epigyne that sits under her abdomen. Basically we look at their structures, we photograph them, we draw them, we measure them and then we describe all of their features. 'Then we analyse that data to figure if we have discovered a new species. 'Unlike other spiders which rely on webs for trapping, the paapaakiri leaps to hunt its prey, requiring better eyesight and bigger eyes than is typical. 'But the flipside of having great eyes when you're a spider is that the genitalia is often simpler and more puny, and their mating rituals more complex. 'For scientists, this makes them harder to categorise than other species, but it doesn't appear to be an issue for the spiders themselves.' There are an estimated 250 species of jumping spider in New Zealand and only 50 are described, with fewer than 10 that can be reliably identified. A large proportion of New Zealand's described jumping spider species are affiliated with Australian relatives and there is very little known about the remaining endemic species. The Dansey Road Scenic Reserve has played host to a plethora of new species discoveries over previous years, including new kinds of beetles, mushrooms and tunnel web spiders. Canopy Tours general manager Paul Button said the discovery of new species points to the positive impact of the conservation work the business has undertaken. 'Over the years, we at Rotorua Canopy Tours have worked hard to significantly reduce the number of introduced pests in the bush. 'The benefit of this is not just to the larger animals, like our birds and bats, but also to our smallest creatures such as spiders, beetles and pseudoscorpions, which have historically all struggled but are now resurging,' Button said. The healthy, virgin New Zealand bushlands have become a keystone for the local tourist operator, which won the Tripadvisor World's Best Nature Activity in 2022 and Pacific's Best in 2023. 'To see the forest bounce back into good health has been an incredible pleasure and privilege,' Button said. 'Our pest control doesn't just protect animals we already knew about, it gives undiscovered creepy crawlies like the paapaakiri a chance at prosperity." Button said scientists, researchers and hobbyists obsessed with everything from birds, bats, mushrooms and bugs flocked to Dansey Rd. 'It is a special place that has really thrived in recent years due to the focused pest control and now we are seeing new creatures emerge that previously might have been on the edge of extinction. 'For a tourism business, you are the kaitiaki [guardians] of the place you work in. 'It is not enough to keep it as it is, you need to work to improve and restore the natural beauty of the place. 'To see animals thriving in this area is proof that ecotourism is not just a buzzword, but actively contributes to the survival of the incredible life that calls Aotearoa home.'
