Rotorua part of Sydney cup fever | Rotorua News | Local News in Rotorua

Rotorua and the wider central North Island will feature at Tourism New Zealand's giant World Cup Rugby ball in Sydney tomorrow.

A delegation representing the Central Park region headed across the Tasman on Tuesday and is spending three days wooing targeted sectors of the Australian travel market to attract visitors to the city for the 2011 Rugby World Cup and associated events next year.

Destination Rotorua Economic Development general manager Grant Kilby said invited guests would be meeting with representatives from the region's golf, ski and mountainbiking sectors and with organisers of the New Zealand Forestry and Wood Processing Festival, which is happening in Rotorua in the week leading up to the first Rugby World Cup game in the city.

They would also be visiting the Tourism New Zealand giant rugby ball, in Sydney to promote the Rugby World Cup in Australia.

"There is a year to go before this all kicks off and this is the start of our countdown to next year's celebrations," Kilby said.

It is an opportunity to make formal presentations to invited guests on the forestry festival and the events surrounding it, such as the Kawerau Woodfest, the National Wood Sector Conference, the 2011 Fitec National Training Awards and an open day at Waiariki Institute of Technology and School of Forestry.

"Our goal is to make the festival become as big for forestry as the field days are for the agricultural sector.

"I think it can be."

Festival organisers hope to attract 3000 to 5000 people to the three-day event between September 5 and 7 next year.

Kilby said he would also be promoting the New Zealand 2011 Business Club, which matches companies and individuals coming to New Zealand for the Rugby World Cup with New Zealanders who share business or leisure interests to build business connections.

But it is not all about rugby and wood - representatives from some of the Central Park region's key activities will be targeting Australians with an interest in golfing, skiing and mountain biking.

Central Park's Rhys Arrowsmith described the delegates as "activity ambassadors" for the region, which extends from the Coromandel, through the Bay of Plenty to the Hawkes Bay, Taupo and Waitomo.