Tourism New Zealand is gearing up to sell the luxury end of the market as operators in the sector say high-spending tourists are not being picked up in statistics.
Those in the luxury bracket spend an average of $2500 a day - about what the average visitor spends during their entire visit - and are the target of a $20 million campaign by Tourism NZ over the next four years.
Tourism New Zealand's general manager marketing communications Justin Watson said the organisation had just created a five-person team to sell the country to the premium travel market.
There will be two people based in Auckland, one in Los Angeles covering the Americas, another in London covering Europe and another in Shanghai for Asia.
The team will be headed by Sam Russell, most recently managing director of Human New Zealand, a Sydney-based brand agency working on the agency's Accor Hotels and Qantas accounts.