An industry-wide tourism event will bring international and national speakers to Taupō this month, with organisers saying the event is open to far more than just tourism operators.
Hui a Tāpoi, spearheaded by Destination Great Lake Taupō (DGLT), runs on Thursday 20 August at the Great Lake Centre.
Love Taupō General Manager Patrick Dault said the event aims to bring everyone with a stake in the region's tourism future into the same room.
"The Taupo hui at Taupo is a one-day event that aims to get all the parties that have a direct and indirect involvement in tourism across one table, one room, where we can discuss the future of the region and how to best make Taupo achieve its full potential," Dault said.
Speakers include representatives from Tourism New Zealand, Air New Zealand, Hospitality New Zealand and Hamilton Airport, alongside local and national tourism operators. Dault said some are travelling from overseas specifically for the event.
"The guest speakers are international, so we have people as far as Australia that are flying in just to meet up with our Taupo tourism industry," Dault said. "We're going to go from really, really big to really, really small."
Sessions will cover topics including new export markets such as India and China, artificial intelligence, and the renewed connectivity from Hamilton Airport, which Dault described as another international gateway feeding directly into the region.
While the event is aimed at the tourism and hospitality sector, Dault said attendance isn't limited to those directly working in tourism.
"The invite and the event is geared towards people that are either in tourism, in hospitality, in retail, in business," Dault said. "It's basically anyone that has an interest, either directly, so they look after visitors or they engage with tourists, or indirectly, if you are [in] air service or any other type of business that looks after people who work in tourism."
Registrations are open and close on 13 August.
