Which NZ city has made it to Monopoly?

New Zealand has earned a spot of the Monopoly board for the first time. Richard Robinson

New Zealand has made it on to the Monopoly map for the first time, beating 60 other major cities for a coveted coloured spot.

Popular South Island ski town, Queenstown, earned a Light Blue position on the famous board of the new Monopoly: Here & Now Edition, released to mark the game's 80th anniversary in September.

The sunrise over Queenstown. The South Island city is the first NZ destination to make it on the the Monopoly board. Photo / Queenstown Tourism

Game maker, Hasbro, nominated Queenstown as the Kiwi contender for the new edition. An online poll attracted over 4 million votes from 182 countries, asking people to pick from 80 different destinations.

Queenstown was in the running for real estate on the limited edition boardgame about a decade ago and missed out by just one ranking.

This time the tourist hotspot came 18th, a ranking which decided the colour it would be - a thrifty Light Blue.

"I'm delighted just to be on the board," Queenstown CEO Graham Budd told the Herald Online.

Also in the Light Blue neighbourhood are Cape Town, South Africa and Taipei in Taiwan.

Mr Budd can't predict what effect this will have on tourism, but doesn't deny the benefit of exposure.

"Millions of people around the world over the next few years... will be seeing Queenstown there alongside New York and Amsterdam and those sorts of places.

"We'll get millions of eyeballs on us, who knows whether it might motivate people to say 'we might visit those places'."

He believes New Zealand and Queenstown are "aspirational" destinations, contributing to their popularity this time around.

"The great thing is that this was a global vote and we got on there. Clearly not only New Zealanders were voting for us, but lots of other people as well."

The details of the poll won't be released publicly, but the most sought-after Dark Blue places went to the top two destinations - Peru's capital Lima and Hong Kong.

Monopoly Here & Now: World Edition

Dark Blue:

Lima, Peru; Hong Kong, China

Green:

Riga, Latvia; Lisbon, Portugal; Istanbul, Turkey

Yellow:

Warsaw, Poland; Mexico City, Mexico; Santiago, Chile

Red:

Belfast, Ireland; Athens, Greece; Belgrade, Serbia

Orange:

London, England; Moscow, Russia; Tokyo, Japan

Magenta:

New York, NY, USA; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Sydney, Australia

Light Blue:

Queenstown, New Zealand; Cape Town, South Africa; Taipei, Taiwan

Brown:

Giethoorn, Netherlands; Madrid, Spain

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