Tourism New Zealand shared its new strategy to grow year-round visitation, in which business events will play a significant role.

Bjoern Spreitzer, Tourism New Zealand’s General Manager NZ and Business Events said his team relished the opportunity to come together with more than 1200 attendees, including more than 200 leading business event organisers from Australia, North America, Asia and New Zealand.

“In 2023, the sector was worth $403 million to the country and 83 per cent of international business delegates arrived during the off-peak period between March and November. We also know these attendees spend $426 a day, around $100 more a day than people who come here on holiday,” he said.

Spreitzer said in the next year Tourism New Zealand was focused on growing the value of the business events sector by targeting larger, high impact conferences. Tourism New Zealand was targeting a record $140m in conference bids in FY25.

This was aligned with Tourism New Zealand’s ambition to grow international tourism by $5 billion over the next four years, with $3.5 billion from off-peak visitation.

“New Zealand’s business events sector has bounced back with 56 international conferences in 2023, a massive increase from just five in 2021. We see significant growth potential too, with Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch all boasting new world-class convention centres, alongside the excellent existing venues we have across the country.”

This year Tourism New Zealand worked with Air New Zealand, local convention bureaux and partners to bring buyers from North America, Southeast Asia, and Hong Kong to Rotorua for the event.

This was in line with goals to grow New Zealand’s share of conferences in the Asia Pacific region and the contribution of high value incentives from North America off-peak.