Trenz is a four-day tourism industry exhibition, where 314 local tourism operators present their wares to 387 travel buyers, with the potential for lucrative contracts for the most appealing tourism attractions.
"There is a huge opportunity for Dunedin and Otago to grow tourism ... In this region growth has only been around 2%, so it’s not performing as well as some other places," Mr Roberts said.
"To me that says there are some missed opportunities there at the moment."
Trenz and its earlier incarnations have only ever been held in Auckland, Rotorua, Christchurch and Queenstown in 40-plus years, so this year’s event — presented by TIA with Enterprise Dunedin, Tourism Waitaki and Venture Southland — is a change of direction.
"There is definitely a significant benefit to Dunedin having a 1000 people in town for a week, but the much more significant benefits are in the following years because a whole lot of very influential overseas buyers will have their eyes opened to the tourism attractions of this region," Mr Roberts said.
The core of Trenz was "three days of business speed dating", where buyers had a succession of 15-minute appointments, generally meeting around 50 different tourism businesses.
A canny operator would know who was in front of them and tailor their pitch directly to the type of tourism products the buyer dealt in, Mr Roberts said.
"It’s about being well-briefed beforehand," he said.
"There are some deals done on the spot, but most of it is a long game — it’s about building a relationship."
Most overseas buyers attending were from China but he was excited about the potential of emerging markets such as the Philippines and Brazil, Mr Roberts said.
Wherever they were from, all buyers would be looking for new attractions, or new offerings from well-known attractions.
Many buyers would be tour party operators — some buyers at Trenz sent 10,000-plus visitors a year to New Zealand, Mr Roberts said.
However, the real growth in tourism had been in travellers who guided themselves around the country.
"Dunedin and Otago are incredibly well-positioned as Queenstown and Christchurch are main hubs and neither of them are that far away.
"If someone is coming to New Zealand for three or four days, you may not pick them up. But if someone is coming here for a week, there is a good chance you will — and if they are here for a month, you would be pretty disappointed if you didn’t get them down here," Mr Roberts said.
Trenz will run from May 9-12 and will be based at the Edgar Centre.
