Tourism NZ gets $13.5m to attract more visitors - China, Australia, US key targets

The Government is pumping $13.5 million into Tourism New Zealand to encourage more international visitors to travel to Aotearoa.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced the change at the SkyCity Convention Centre in Auckland this afternoon.

The Government says the injection is forecast to result in more than 23,000 additional international visitors, who would spend an extra $100 million across the country.

The investment will have a focus on encouraging visitors from China, Australia, the United States, India, Germany and South Korea.

“We know international marketing works, with around 14% of international holiday visitors already being directly influenced by Tourism NZ’s marketing activity,” said Tourism Minister Louise Upston.

“We want to grow that influence. Our international visitor spending and visitor numbers have been rebuilding strongly, and we must make the most of that momentum.”

Earlier this year, the Government announced the ‘Everyone Must Go!’ campaign focused on Australia.

“2025 is our chance to reinforce the value of tourism and show what our humming, vibrant country has on show. New Zealand tourism is open for business,” said Upston.

“We already know our country has so much going for it. Now we need the global marketing to push that story even wider.”

It comes as Luxon denies there is disagreement between him and his Foreign Minister, Winston Peters, over language used in response to US President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs.

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Speaking at the East-West Centre in Hawaii, Peters said it was an “uncertain and anxious” time in world affairs and there was often an urge to “react too quickly and too stridently”.

“In recent weeks, the tendency to hype up a debate about how international trade works into a black-and-white, polarising issue has been unfortunate and misguided.

“The use of military language – of a ‘trade war’, of the need to ‘fight’, of the imperative to form alliances in order to oppose the actions of one country – has at times come across as hysterical and short-sighted.”

Those terms are ones Luxon has recently used in reference to the trade tariffs and his desire to advocate internationally for free trade.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon (left) and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters. Photo / Mark Mitchell

In a speech on Thursday, Luxon concluded by stating free trade was “worth fighting for – and I’m up for that fight”.

Speaking to Newstalk ZB on Monday morning, Luxon said any suggestion he and Peters were on a different page was a “media beat-up”.

“Winston and I are actually saying the same thing – that we’ve been cool, calm, and collected in our response.”

Luxon last week discussed international trade with several world leaders, including Philippines President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos jnr, Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and European Union Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.

In Luxon’s conversation with von der Leyen, the pair discussed the prospects for closer co-operation between the European Union and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), of which New Zealand was a member.

Peters, in his speech, cautioned against actions intended to “pick sides” or “form teams” amid an evolving trade landscape, advocating to “wait for the dust to settle before making choices we may later regret”.

He ended his address by promising he would “promote careful, pragmatic, quiet dialogue – aimed at de-escalation and practical problem-solving, rather than premature posturing”.