Bay of Plenty tourism is about to get the once over by a multi-award winning international tourism consultant.

Professor Terry Stevens arrives in Rotorua this weekend and will provide rare insight into global best practise for destination development.

Multi-award winning international tourism consultant Professor Terry Stevens. Photo: supplied

Terry has been a tourism consultant for more than 30 years and has worked in more than 50 countries for a number of international economic development agencies.

His resume includes the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, UNESCO and the World Bank as well as national, regional and local tourism organisations. Private sector clients have included Coca Cola, Philips and Guinness to name a few.

In recent years, Terry has undertaken a range of international visitor destination benchmarking studies. This has included specific benchmarking for Rotorua which will provide insight into the learnings from other comparable tourism destinations around the globe.

Rotorua mayor Steve Chadwick saw Terry speak at a world global spa summit in Morocco in 2014.

'I particularly want to hear his angle on what we as an internationally competitive visitor destination need to do. What are the other aspects that any planning needs to consider?

'Getting someone with external internationally recognised eyes to look at our forward plan as a natural hot springs and spa destination is important.

'He doesn't have to be a secret shopper but he can look at what we're doing in the inner city, what we're doing in terms of attracting new investment in this space and what bits might be missing,” she says in a media statement.

Two years ago, Rotorua brought television MasterChef judge Ray McVinnie to talk about lifting the hospitality and food opportunities in the city.

'It's a similar opportunity with Prof Stevens. It will have resonance with our planners, the inner city group, the visitor sector and investors in the wider Rotorua economy.

'This is a perfect time to reconsider our approach within the context of global best practise and to identify if there are things missing or we can be doing better.”

The visit will focus on economic growth, about having confidence in the Rotorua destination and confidence about the key propositions for investment, she says.

'This is an opportunity for local stakeholders to listen to him, throw the ideas around and out of the week will come something that is quite compelling.”

Over the course of a week in Rotorua Terry will evaluate the region and partake in a variety of visitor experiences.

Professor Terry Stevens facilitating a discussion on future trends in sports tourism for Euro Sport. Courtesy of YouTube