Tourism New Zealand aspires for record number of conferences

Tourism New Zealand has announced that they are targeting NZD $135m (USD $86m) worth of international conferences for 2024. The figure will mark a record for the organisation. Tourism New Zealand aims to bid for 90 international conferences in FY24, which will follow a successful FY23 of 84 bids worth NZD $120m for the country. Tourism New Zealand chief executive René de Monchy says that the business events industry globally is now in full recovery mode and there are good opportunities to attract quality events to New Zealand which will benefit the country’s economy, society, culture, and environment. “Whether its conferences that aim to improve equity for women and girls in sport, or will grow New Zealand’s sustainable agri-food-tech sector, business events contribute to our country in many ways, both tangible and intangible,” de Monchy adds. “In FY24 Tourism New Zealand will work hard to support New Zealand’s business events sector to attract business that will also grow knowledge and collaboration across many of society’s important subjects and industries.” The economic value of business events in New Zealand was estimated at NZD $1.48bn in the year ending June 2019 – the most recent year that there is full data for before New Zealand’s border closed due to Covid. In the meantime, New Zealand has built two new purpose-built convention centres in both Christchurch and Wellington, with a third another to come in Auckland in 2025. Additionally, Tourism New Zealand reports that the number of conference bids has grown consistently year-on-year from seven in 2012 to 89 in 2019 before the global Covid pandemic led to a drop. Despite New Zealand’s borders being closed, bid activity continued – building a pipeline of conference business through to 2028.