Wayne Brown Photo: RNZ / Felix Walton
The lack of international events on next year's calendar and a $17 million budget cut at Tātaki Auckland Unlimited has forced the agency to get creative.
It hopes a new annual festival on Auckland's harbour will keep tourism flowing.
Running for a month from 24 February to 24 March, Moana Auckland aims to celebrate the City of Sails with boat shows, races and other events.
At Wednesday's launch event, mayor Wayne Brown said it was "a celebration of what makes Auckland a wonderful city".
"I've dressed for the occasion, I'm wearing sails on my shirt.
"I totally support this, it's a great thing to look forward to - particularly at a time when we're facing some rather difficult financial circumstances, particularly at the council."
Off the back of this year's FIFA Women's World Cup and a $17 million cut from the mayor's budget, Tātaki Auckland Unlimited said it had reconsidered its strategy.
Without the resources to aggressively bid for international events, the agency hoped to build its own.
Tātaki Auckland Unlimited major events head Chris Simpson said Auckland's harbours would become hubs for all kinds of maritime events including a harbour swim, boat shows and a waka ama race.
"You don't need to be that creative to recognise our point of difference as a city," he said.
"If we're going to create a 'Vivid' [like] Sydney, or a 'Melbourne Tennis Open', I think Moana Auckland is that event. We need to genuinely get together and make it work."
Chris Simpson Photo: RNZ / Felix Walton
He said Auckland needed to establish its own identity to compete with Australia.
"As a country, we've tended to go for big one-off events, we've kind of neglected trying to grow and build our own events like the Australians have done.
"We want to put our focus more into growing our own regular content so we're in control of our own destiny."
NZ Marine executive director Peter Busfield agreed; he said Auckland had to build its reputation on the world stage.
"Where's the 'Tour de France?' It's in France, and everybody knows it," he said.
"Auckland has sort of lost its way in not knowing exactly what it stands for, so I think this Moana Festival and the 'City of Sails' [identity] will put us back on the map."
In the past, Simpson said Auckland had marketed itself with blow-outs like FIFA, the Rugby World Cup or the America's Cup.
But that was becoming unsustainable, he said.
"We've got to be realistic, the competition has heightened. The Australian states are putting huge amounts of money into [bidding for] major events," he said.
"It's going to get tougher to win those big events, it's not saying we won't go for them but in the meantime we need to create our own events that we don't lose."
Deputy mayor Desley Simpson said Tātaki Auckland Unlimited's tighter budget forced its leadership to be more resourceful.
"What happens when you have a budget cut is it focuses your mind a little more specifically on what's important and makes you a little bit more efficient at what you do," she said.
"I want to congratulate Tātaki on the work they've done in getting sponsorships for this event."
She said the festival had a lot of potential.
"A combination of tourism, economic development, and appreciation of our wonderful moana, it's all that put together and I just can't wait."
Simpson hoped Moana Auckland would eventually become New Zealand's biggest annual event.
"At the moment, our vision is for this to be a flagship iconic event," he said.
"We've got GDP estimates for this first year of $27 million, our target for 2025 is to generate $47 million. It's going to take time and build year on year."
But he said there was more to come.
"That doesn't mean we won't look at other opportunities," he said.
"Ideally we would like to have more than one anchor event and apply a bit more of a seasonal approach, spread them throughout the year."
The first annual Moana Auckland festival begins on 24 February.