Tourism New Zealand's René de Monchy says the recent month-on-month visitor growth rate has been promising. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
- Tourism New Zealand is confident it can hit $5 billion off-peak plan targets
- Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Rebecca Ingram is calling for their industry to remain on the radar of political parties this election and not lose momentum
- She says the sector is feel optimistic about next 12 months and forward bookings have been positive for summer
- Tourism New Zealand's latest global campaign has been seen 178 million times
Tourism New Zealand says it's on track to hit its visitor arrival targets after receiving millions of dollars from the government.
In April, the organisation received a $13.5 million boost to attract an extra 23,000 international visitors by the end of March 2026 and bring in an additional $100m.
Less than two months later, the government announced another $13.5m to help attract 72,000 visitors from China, Australia and the United States over the next few years.
Tourism New Zealand chief executive René de Monchy said the recent month-on-month visitor growth rate has been promising and there was a pretty positive outlook for the summer.
The funding meant they had worked closely with major markets to drive a bit of urgency around people deciding to book a trip to Aotearoa, he said.
In June, Tourism New Zealand launched a new global campaign with a familiar twist. Photo: YouTube / 100% Pure New Zealand
In June, a new marketing campaign inviting the world to find their 100 percent Pure New Zealand was launched, which de Monchy said was able to go live earlier because of the additional funding.
"It means it's been seen 178 million times in our key markets. It's driven 300,000 people to visit NewZealand.com, which is our core website, to find out more about New Zealand to start their planning and hopefully entice them into getting the bookings," he said.
"It's doing its job in terms of really priming the audience.
The campaign cost more than $5m and was part of the 100% Pure NZ legacy campaign.
In 2024, Tourism New Zealand launched a strategy to grow tourism by $5 billion over the next four years, putting particular attention into enticing travellers outside of the busy summer season.
About 70 percent of that spending growth - or $3.5b - was meant to be achieved outside of peak season.
Total international visitor spend reached $12.3b, a 5.3 percent increase, in the year to September, according to the government figures.
De Monchy said it was positive progress.
"I'm confident we'll get to those numbers."
There had been a lot of focus on tourism this year and the industry had been buoyed by the momentum, he said.
"That's a really good sign that people are feeling more optimistic and more certainty, hiring more people, investing in their products and in their businesses. Those are all really good positive signals, he said.
Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Rebecca Ingram agreed, saying forward bookings were looking positive and the industry had real momentum.
She attributed that to the government's tourism focus and investments, targeted marketing from Tourism New Zealand, changes in visa settings and new and exciting changes on the horizon including the upcoming opening of the One NZ Stadium in Christchurch.
But businesses had different experiences based on where they were in the country with some of the main centres finding it tougher this year than parts of the South Island, Ingram said.
Rebecca Ingram speaking at the TRENZ conference in Rotorua in May 2025. Photo: Zahn Trotter
Domestic travel had also been quite variable and business travel was also down.
The government has set its sights on doubling the value of tourism exports by 2034, growing the number of Kiwis working in tourism and hospitality, and restoring international visitor arrivals to at least 2019 levels.
She was pleased by the work to meet those targets - the Tourism Growth Roadmap, saying it was an opportunity to "shift a gear in the way we do tourism".
That included tackling issues including workforce, data, sustainability, funding, regions and communities.
But she did not want that energy or focus to be lost as New Zealand entered an election year.
"If there is a change of government next year, that that work isn't lost and that focus isn't lost and that we continue to have our eyes set on what do we want tourism to look like in the future and what does that mean for the decisions that we make today," Ingram said.
De Monchy said the industry still faced challenges, travel was a discretionary spend, the cost of advertising was rising and competition was tough.
China had been slower to recover and travel from the United States, while strong overall, had been wobbly in recent months following geopolitical uncertainty, he said.
But there were also opportunities.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon visits Swaminarayan Akshardham temple in New Delhi, India. Luxon is leading a large delegation to India on a four-day visit to bolster political, business and cultural ties in March 2025. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Currently, Australia, China and the United States account for about 60 percent of international visitors.
There would always be a big focus on those main markets, but Tourism New Zealand was considering where to branch out further, he said.
"Markets like India, that still is the medium term significant opportunity for New Zealand. At the moment, you can't fly direct, it's quite complicated," he said.
But a partnership between Air New Zealand and Air India had paved the way for more optimism.
He also believed visitors from Thailand, Malaysia and other countries in South East Asia could be attracted to New Zealand.
The tourism industry was preparing for artificial intelligence to play a greater role in how people travel.
The sector has been facing a rapid rise in new technology with some hotels already using robots for room service and some airlines using digital bag tags.
Ingram said smartphones were now the most useful travel tool used for recommendations, translations and planning an itinerary.
"Unsurprisingly, AI is changing that landscape so 40 percent of travellers, this is some CANTAR research that was done recently, are using AI to plan their travel," she said
There needed to be a concerted effort for how tourism businesses would show up in this world of AI, she said.
As for the travel trends ahead, embracing nature and wellness tourism were high on the agenda for many and New Zealand was well placed for travellers seeking to enhancing their well-being or those wanting wild wellness in the great outdoors, Ingram said.
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