Eight Beating Hearts

Date: 03 May 2005

A cooperative marketing approach is helping to create a new international positioning for Maori tourism products in Rotorua.

For the first time an iwi-based story is being sold as a tourism experience, and it is already winning acclaim abroad.

The Eight Beating Hearts of Te Arawa brings together eight individual tourism operators from throughout the Rotorua region, combining the different experiences to form three packages – high-end, mainstream and adventure.

The concept was launched at the 2004 Kiwi Link UK and Netherlands trade training event with the support of the Poutama Trust and walked away with the award for the best presentation, as judged by British and Dutch travel agents.

Renee Nathan, Chairwoman of Maori in Tourism Rotorua says, “We saw an opportunity to develop quality cultural packages, which would encourage visitors to spend more time in the Rotorua area, experience more products, and allow them to gain a real sense of the different aspects of our culture.

“The Eight Beating Hearts, Nga Pu Manawa e Waru is a major part of Te Arawa whakapapa, and in different ways each operator portrays an aspect of this history. Some of the experiences in the packages are mainstream activities like white-water rafting, or bungy, but they all incorporate a Maori cultural segment, and they all add to the overall story we are telling our visitors.

“Kiwi Link UK was the first time Rotorua’s Maori operators had worked collectively in this way, and the first time an iwi-based story had been incorporated within an international tourism package. From the feedback we have already received, it’s clear there is a real interest in this type of package internationally, and an opportunity for this model to be used elsewhere in New Zealand,” says Ms Nathan.

“The Eight Beating Hearts of Te Arawa is a profound vehicle. It allows us to work together to include experiences that are delivered by descendants of, and upon that land that belongs to, Nga Pu Manawa e Waru. There is something for everyone in these packages – and it is fantastic to hear the positive feedback from offshore,” says Nadine Rippey, Marketing Manager of Hells Gate & Wai Ora Spa.

From a practical point of view the packaged products are also more appealing to the international marketplace according to Kiri Atkinson-Crean, Marketing Manager for Tamaki Heritage Experiences. “For international wholesalers, package prices warrant pre-sale. Eight Beating Hearts includes many products already well known internationally – since they are now linked by way of a powerful story it simply makes them all the easier to sell.”

The collective approach also has benefits for visitors, according to Ms Nathan. “Both group and independent visitors receive added value such as gifts as they unravel this story. They are also accompanied by a guide, so that local Maori can share their own personal stories, and add to the visitor’s experience. It’s our way of ensuring ‘manaakitanga’ from beginning to end – people come as visitors… but they leave as friends.”

Source: Tourism News May