Benefits will flow, tourism boss says

The four-day Trenz event that brought 1500 tourism industry representatives from New Zealand and overseas ended yesterday, and Dunedin's regional tourism organisation says it will result in benefits for the city.

Trenz was one of the more significant conferences the city had hosted, and it required some serious logistics to pull off.

What has been described as a business speed-dating event attracted 387 buyers from 27 markets from Australia to the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan, and emerging visitor markets such as Brazil and the Philippines.

The event should add to New Zealand's $36billion tourism expenditure, and $2million was expected to be added to Dunedin's economy from holding it here.

Enterprise Dunedin director John Christie said Trenz had "been excellent for us".

"To be able to put your city on display to the people that are here as part of New Zealand's biggest trade event is significant."

Mr Christie said it had exceeded expectations in terms of giving delegates a Dunedin experience.

Anecdotally, Dunedin operators were "very positive".

The number of Dunedin sellers was higher than in the past and new businesses attended.

Dunedin also got prime position near the entrance to the event, which helped raise awareness about what was happening in the region.

Enterprise Dunedin had been working with visiting media, and organising visits for delegates to tourism operations.

Tourism Industry Aotearoa events director Emily Byrne said the organisation had a team of four working all year to organise the event.

They would start organising the next conference straight away.

The organisation shipped 13 containers of equipment from Auckland.

Trenz had also used "all the screens in Christchurch, Dunedin and Queenstown" - both big screens used at the event and smaller screens for tourism operators - to show video presentations.

Local companies had provided sound, food and security.