Events & Marketing
Thanks to its sunny climate, beautiful coastline and wonderfully diverse geography, the Eastern Bay of Plenty hosts an amazing variety of events.
They range from sporting spectaculars like the challenging Whakatane Great Outdoors Monty's Revenge multisport event, through to fun celebrations of life in the Eastern Bay, like Whakatane’s annual Jumping Tuna Festival.
There are business promotions like the popular AAA Awards, events that celebrate the Eastern Bay’s scenic and wildlife attractions like the annual Birds a Plenty Festival, celebrations of the beach lifestyle such as the Ohope Summer Festival and to promote business in the region, the highly successful Business & Leisure Show, instigated by Toi-EDA staff five years ago.
In between, there are scores of interesting events covering just about every area of interest you could think of – and a lot more, besides. Conferences are also a growth area which is being actively explored and promoted.
Details of happenings in the area are listed on the Whakatane District Council’s www.whakatane.com website, Opotiki District Council’s www.opotikinz.com and Kawerau District Council’s www.kaweraudc.govt.nz.
The co-ordination, marketing and in many cases development of these events, which run throughout the year, is the responsibility Toi-EDA Events and Marketing Office, staffed by Nicola Burgess and Mike van der Boom. The busy office focuses on events that attract people into the area and its marketing efforts are also concentrated outside the region.
High profile advertising and marketing promotions aimed at encouraging more people to visit and live in the Eastern Bay of Plenty are another focus of the office. Staff attend key national events such as home shows, travel conferences and the Waikato’s annual Fieldays as part of the promotional effort.
And the Events and Marketing Office’s efforts are certainly bearing fruit for the region. A project conducted in 2007 by Key Research and covering the Waikato and Palmerston North areas found that knowledge and perceptions of Whakatane were positive and for those who had visited, Whakatane had 90-95 per cent met or exceeded their expectations.
