New appointments balance Rotorua Tourism Committee

13 August 2012

New appointments complete balance for Rotorua Tourism Committee

Rotorua District Council has appointed two new members to the Rotorua Tourism Committee, the group tasked with driving implementation of the district’s tourism master plan alongside Destination Rotorua Marketing, Rotorua Visitor Centre & i-SITE, and Events and Venues Rotorua.

The new members are Fiona Suurenbroek and Tim Cossar.

Ms Suurenbroek is chair of the Rotorua Association of Motels and owner/operator of local motel Cedarwood Lakeside Holiday Resort. Prior to moving to Rotorua in 2009 Ms Suurenbroek worked in the corporate sector with Converga New Zealand and in banking.

Mr Cossar is chief executive of Maori cultural centre Te Puia and previously headed both the Tourism Industry Association of New Zealand and the QEII National Trust. Before leaving Rotorua for Wellington in 2001 he held roles with the Rotorua District Council as Tourism Rotorua general manager and as economic and business development manager.

Tourism Committee chair Tony Marks said Ms Suurenbroek would bring a valuable smaller business point of view to the committee. He said small tourism businesses made up a substantial component of Rotorua’s visitor sector and had an important role to play in helping achieve the district’s strategic tourism objectives.

He said Mr Cossar was one of the country’s most experienced and highly regarded tourism practitioners and would add a huge resource of tourism knowledge and experience to the committee table.

“Tim heads the country’s most significant Maori cultural experience, which is also one of Rotorua’s and New Zealand’s most post popular visitor attractions.

“Fiona and Tim come from quite different tourism backgrounds and will therefore contribute very different but complementary perspectives to the tourism committee. Their appointments give the committee a look of completion and balance which as committee chair I am very pleased to have around me.”

Mr Marks said he was sorry to lose outgoing members Stewart Brown and Karl Johnstone as they had both made outstanding contributions to the committee since its establishment in 2010.

However bringing in new faces from time-to-time did ensure the committee maintained a degree of freshness he said.

Mr Johnstone had stood down from the committee to devote more time to his job with Te Puia and the New Zealand Maori Arts & Crafts Institute, while Mr Brown was this week taking on a new role as Rotorua Museum director.

Rotorua Tourism Committee members are Tony Marks (chair), Bruce Thomasen, Kiri Atkinson-Crean, Brett Marvelly, Councillor Maureen Waaka, and new appointments Fiona Suurenbroek and Tim Cossar.

ENDS

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