Taupo holiday park wins national awards

Taupo holiday park wins national awards

Innovative and environmentally sustainable use of scalding geothermal water to benefit both visitors and nearby businesses has two major awards for a Taupo holiday park.

Taupo DeBretts Spa Resort won the Tourism Industry Association (TIA) Tourism 2025 Innovation Award and the Jasons Smart Business Award at the annual Holiday Parks Awards.

The park also won the Seekom Innovation in Online Marketing Award.

The Awards ceremony was held during the holiday park sector’s annual conference, attended by about 300 Holiday Accommodation Parks Association of New Zealand (HAPNZ) members.

HAPNZ Chief Executive Fergus Brown says Taupo DeBretts’ entry stood out for its clever thinking and finding opportunities to benefit neighbouring businesses.

TIA Chief Executive Chris Roberts says the innovation is an excellent example of putting Tourism 2025 into action, improving both productivity and the visitor experience.

Taupo DeBretts uses geothermally heated water but needed to cool it considerably before it could be used in its swimming complex and two new curved hydroslides. The park harnesses the geothermal heat for accommodation heating, and to heat water for its laundry and almost half its showers.

But it still had excess heat so approached the adjacent Hilton Hotel which now uses the geothermal heat to heat the property, and for heating and hot water in its swimming pool and spa facilities.

After the heat has been extracted at the Hilton, the cooler water is returned to Debretts at a usable 50 deg Celsius.

“Natural geothermal energy in our region has given us significant savings on electrical, gas heating and reticulation costs as well as a better customer experience. The Hilton is now able to shut off gas and electrical heating. This is not only a fantastic financial result, the environmental benefits are outstanding,” Park Director Barry Kirkland says.

Other central North Island holiday parks recognised in the 2015 Holiday Parks Awards are:

• PGG Wrightson Turf Park Grounds Award finalist – Rotorua TOP 10 Holiday Park

• Resco Best Upgrade Award finalists – Rotorua Thermal Holiday Park and Rotorua TOP 10 Holiday Park

• Seekom Innovation in Online Marketing special mention - Rotorua TOP 10 Holiday Park

For more information on the Holiday Parks 2015 conference, go to www.holidayparks.co.nz/conference-program

ENDS

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