Changing horizons and new challenges at the coalface

A change of pace, location and direction has come for the Tourism New Zealand officer who has been the interface with Maori at a strategic level during the last two and a half years.

It’s certainly been a major shift from the support role Waimaria Erueti has more recently provided, to coalface tourism operations.

Descended from the Te Atihaunuia- Paparangi people of the Whanganui River through her father and Ngati Mutunga of the Chatham Islands on her mother’s side, Waimaria has spent her recent life infused in the tourism development group at Tourism New Zealand’s head office in Wellington.

Waimaria Erueti ... no longer being seen as the interface between Maori tourism and the country's national marketing agency following a move north to fulfill a new and challenging role

A marine biology graduate, she worked with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, then moved to the Waitangi Fisheries Commission before taking on a business development role for Sealord Fisheries in Nelson.

Her passion for fencing - the sport not the farming pursuit - led her to six years in Italy as a New Zealand representative, where she also did contract work for what was then TRADENZ, along with public relations work for a commercial client.

On returning to New Zealand, Waimaria went to her father’s side of the whanau (family), working on contract to the Whanganui River Maori Trust Board in negotiations with the Crown.

This led her to Tourism New Zealand, where she has been part of the group that handled the Maori development strategy, business and strategic planning and onshore liaison with organisations such as the i-Sites, the Visitor Information Network and Qualmark.

Now, her time in the capital has come to an end, with a shift north to the Cultural Capital of Aotearoa New Zealand bringing a much difference focus and greater challenges.

As general manager operations at the recently rebranded Te Puia - formerly the New Zealand Arts and Crafts Institute -Waimaria has direct responsibility for overseeing more than 40 staff as well as the concessionaires who work within that segment of the Whakarewarewa valley.

These personnel include all the guiding staff, those who provide Te Puia’s day-time and evening concerts, and maintenance crews. She says that although it is early days yet, she is hugely excited by what lies ahead.

“The timing has been just right, with the rebranding just completed and some very significant developments still to come at Te Puia,” she says.

“This is an operation that is going to push Maori tourism to another level and it is really cool that I will be a part of that.”

From a wider perspective, Waimaria believes Maori tourism is on the right track in terms of the delivery of its product to Tourism New Zealand’s target market, the Interactive Traveller.

There is now so much more to Maori tourism than there used to be in days gone by and she believes the sector is now well positioned to fill the needs of the international visitors who are seeking an array of different experiences as they travel through Aotearoa New Zealand.

“I am really very happy to be at Te Puia and am looking forward to being involved in the future development of Maori tourism at a different level to where I have been in the past,” she says.