Some 305 leading New Zealand tourism businesses have gathered in Rotorua this week to collectively win over regional and international travel trade buyers. The platform facilitating this destination showcase is TRENZ 2025, an annual travel trade event organised by Tourism Industry Aotearoa (TIA), which plays a crucial role in marketing destination New Zealand to the world.
The 31st edition of TRENZ boasts 44 new tourism products as well as 20 first-time sellers.
The programme kicked off on May 6 with host city fam tours, a TRENZ Talks conference discussing hot button issues, business meetings, and a lively welcome party at Te Puia, Rotorua. The latter is a premium attraction that takes visitors deep into New Zealand’s rich Maori arts and culture as well as Rotorua’s active geothermal geysers and kiwi conservation efforts.
Business matching sessions continue through May 7 and 8 at Energy Events Centre.
Event organisers said more than 16,000 15-minute buyer-and-seller meetings would take place during TRENZ 2025.
Rebecca Ingram, chief executive of TIA, said the four-day event would contribute about NZ$3 million (US$1.8 million) to the local economy.
A further economic impact report will be produced at the end of TRENZ 2025 to determine the value of business transactions. Ingram shared that at last year’s event, 14 per cent of exhibiting businesses expected to turn over more than NZ$1 million from business deals.
According to Tourism Satellite Account, tourism is the country’s second largest export earner, contributing NZ$16.9 billion to the economy for the year ending March 2024.
The industry aims to resume its position as New Zealand’s leading export earner alongside the dairy industry.
Total tourism expenditure for the year ending March 2024 was NZ$44.4 billion, up 14.6 per cent from 2023.
Tourism contributed 7.5 per cent of New Zealand’s GDP – directly and indirectly. This is a 6.9 per cent improvement over the previous year.
International tourism expenditure was up 59.9 per cent, reaching NZ$16.9 billion in the year ending March 2024, marking a return to levels similar to 2019, which was NZ$17.2 billion.
International tourism’s contribution to total exports of goods and services was 17.2 per cent, up from 11.2 per cent in 2024.
