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Peter Needham - thumbnail imageFifteen tourism leaders from New Zealand’s North Island have teamed up to boost visitation from Australia and other prime inbound source markets.

From the subtropical beaches of the North Island’s Far North to the vineyards of Martinborough, with the cultural experiences of Rotorua in between, the tourism regions are joining forces to encourage holidaymakers to experience more.

The North Island promotion collective seeks to accelerate the recovery of international tourism, with visitation from Australia and China back in growth mode and the North America to Auckland route having fully recovered.

Auckland Airport Chief Executive Carrie Hurihanganui told TRENZ 2025 in Rotorua yesterday that the new partnership between the 15 tourism organisations – the first of its kind for regional tourism organisations in the North Island – aimed to bring regions together to highlight and connect the wide range of North Island destination offerings to overseas visitors.

Carrie Hurihanganui - Auckland Airport

Carrie Hurihanganui – Auckland Airport

Hurihanganui said Auckland Airport recorded an 11% increase in international visitor arrivals from December 2024. Visitor arrivals into AKL (Auckland Airport) are now at 84% of 2019 levels.

“It’s about leveraging our collective tourism pulling power,” Hurihanganui said.

“Individually, each region has a fabulous offering, but we want to work together to help international visitors connect those dots better to experience everything excellent and unique about the North Island.

“As the gateway airport for many visitors to New Zealand, we’re proud to come together with Tātaki Auckland Unlimited, RotoruaNZ and the other regional tourism organisations to develop and support this partnership.

“It builds on our work with Tātaki Auckland Unlimited and RotoruaNZ over the past year to attract more Australian visitors with a dual-region North Island destination proposition.

We’re seeing that effort flow through to an increase in Australian visitation, which is building back from 83% of pre-pandemic volumes last February to 92% recovered one year on. That’s an additional 110,000 Australian tourists.”

In 2019, Australian visitors made up 40% of all visitor arrivals to New Zealand. This has now increased to 42% (as of December 2025).

Tātaki Auckland Unlimited’s Destination Director Annie Dundas said: “This MOU is a big step forward in helping us strengthen our international presence. The travel landscape is changing, and we must be smarter about how we show up overseas to sell our respective regions. This partnership allows us to be clearer in our proposition, making it easier to meet the needs of our travel partners overseas and ultimately future travellers.

“Our first activity will take place in September in Australia with the North Island Showcase, seeing over 60 North Island tourism operators connect with key Australian travel sellers at two events in Sydney and Melbourne. We see this as a massive opportunity, and we’re excited to be part of this collaborative effort,” said Ms Dundas.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed with participating regional tourism leaders.

The complete list includes (in geographical order):

  • Northland Inc

  • Tātaki Auckland Unlimited

  • Destination Hauraki Coromandel

  • Hamilton & Waikato Tourism

  • Tourism Bay of Plenty

  • RotoruaNZ

  • Tairawhiti Gisborne

  • Destination Great Lake Taupo

  • Visit Ruapehu

  • Venture Taranaki

  • Hawkes Bay Tourism

  • Whanganui and Partners

 

 

 

Written by Peter Needham at TRENZ in Rotorua, New Zealand

 

 

 

 

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