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Almost 300 suppliers and contractors from around New Zealand are working behind the scenes to stage the first Tourism Rendezvous New Zealand (Trenz) travel trade display in the Southern Lakes district. The expo is now on and runs until Wednesday.
Sponsors Air New Zealand and Qantas flew many of the 900 international travel buyers, New Zealand tourism operators and media delegates to Queenstown Airport over the weekend, where they were welcomed and directed to transport arrangements by Destination Queenstown staff.
Delegates saw the eye-catching temporary stand on the forecourt of the terminal building, which features Land Rovers operated by Nomad Safaris, a Shotover Jet boat on its trailer and a stack of rafts from Queenstown Rafting as examples of the activities the resort has to offer.
Trenz supporter Johnston's Coachlines will shuttle delegates around the Wakatipu, particularly to and from sponsor accommodation providers Millennium, Kingsgate and Copthorne hotels, plus a dozen official accommodation providers, including Millbrook, Crowne Plaza and both the newly-opened Hilton Queenstown and Kawarau hotels.
The Queenstown Events Centre will be the engine room of Trenz, with a 900-person marquee, sourced from Christchurch, erected next to it last week to help house all the exhibition booths.
Lakes Leisure events and venues manager JD Marrable said he and two or three staff members handled the client and community side of Trenz, while dedicated and unflappable site manager Tim Cody liaised with suppliers and contractors.
Mr Marrable said Trenz occupied the main hall, ancillary rooms and part of the car park for the marquee. The display was one of the biggest events held in the Southern Lakes district, he said.
"We've had some good weather, great crew and suppliers and the TIA (Tourism Industry Association) has been great to deal with. The community's bought into the whole process."
Wanaka company Flying Trestles, with its experience of catering for film crews on location, will feed and water delegates in the events centre.
About 40 Queenstown Resort College students were volunteering on site and experiencing how the tourism industry worked on the inside.
Students will be on hand to help exhibitors and run errands.
Central Queenstown almost becomes the networking hall for Trenz, with evening functions held in Skyline, on board the steamship Earnslaw and in three bars in Queenstown Mall.
All three Southern Lakes regional tourism organisations (RTOs), plus about 50 tourism operators will attend to acquaint buyers and journalists with their products, before, during and after Trenz.
The Tourism Industry Association manages the expo and each event takes a year to plan.
The association's communications manager, Ann-Marie Johnson, of Wellington, said she attended the event three times as a media delegate and two or three times as part of the association.
Miss Johnson said staging Trenz was a big logistical exercise, but it was part of what the association did.
"We look for the highest quality in our suppliers because we want to give the best possible impression to visitors when they're here," she said.
"One of the challenges we've had is bringing it to a smaller venue, certainly compared with the resources of Auckland, so we brought some of our contractors we have strong standing relations with, like Johnston's; with loads of support from Southern Lakes RTOs."
Miss Johnson said Queenstown was a premier visitor destination and had been an attraction for delegates.
The number of travel buyers registered exceeded the association's pre-Christchurch earthquake target.
"We're looking forward to a great event and it'll be interesting to get feedback from exhibitors this year," she said.
