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This week, the Tourism Export Council of New Zealand held their first trade event.
The inaugural gathering saw 105 tourism businesses, comprising of 182 sellers, and more than 170 inbound tour operator staff meet at the Viaduct Events Centre in Auckland.
The New Zealand based event brought together the best of the tourism products New Zealand has to offer to enable inbound operators to sell New Zealand products and experiences to their offshore clients, travel agents and tour wholesalers.
TECNZ CEO Lynda Keene says the TECNZ team is “really delighted” with how their first trade event went.
“We are absolutely thrilled with the response to the new, inaugural, standalone trade event.
“It’s been a few years in the making, and we had to look at what we’ve done in the past and the events associated with the conference, [to make sure we were] really meeting the needs of our members.
“We’ve been guided to look at how we can provide more value for the members, and it really was a no-brainer that we take trading out of the conference and make it a standalone event,” she says.
“Previously at conference we might have had 40-45 inbound attendees to do the trade event to meet the 90 suppliers, and that’s been very successful and it’s been on appointment. But when that you think that, today, there’s 170 inbound staff at all levels – owners, principals, general managers, itinerary developers, travel designers – all in the same room, we’re finding the sellers can educate far more than the 40 people that they might always see at every conference.
“Now there’s 120 people in the room who are writing and developing the itineraries, that suddenly the sellers have that opportunity to get their product and experience in front of.”
Hosting the event in Auckland was “really important” she says.
“With the TECNZ conference, we always take it out to the regions so that we can do famils and lots of people can travel to locations that they haven’t been to for a while.
“But when we look at where the base is for most of the inbounds, it’s in Auckland.
“From a seller point of view, because most of the inbounds are based in Auckland, if you live on the West Coast, or Wellington, or Kaikōura, for you to come up and see three inbounds in one day, there’s a cost involved, so what we’re hearing from the sellers is that they’re liking that they can have up to 40 appointments and that there’s really good value in seeing up to 20 per day.
“We’re pretty thrilled that the reasons we made this a standalone event have been proven to be correct.”
And there was unanimous agreement from sellers that the event was a success.
Hobbiton sales manager Henry Horne says he was initially sceptical but that it was well worth attending.
“When they decided to segregate [the conference and the trade] and do it in a separate format, I was a bit apprehensive about having something else to try and fit into my calendar, but I’ve got to be honest, it’s been great.
“The conversation has been immediate; we’ve just come out of what is deemed to be the peak season, so little bumps that have occurred we’ve been able to chat about.
“It’s been really productive, and I’ve really enjoyed the conversations.
“When we get that opportunity, we should take that chance to connect.”
His positive sentiments are shared by NZone head of sales – skydive Australia and New Zealand Drew Hamilton and NZone business development manager Li Li.
“It’s been amazing. Now we have an event to just talk about business and a separate conference later,” says Li Li.
“Trade is super important. Trade is how we get most of our business and having these business relationships and networking events is good,” says Drew.
“The format’s been good – the meetings are long enough, the venue is good – sometimes you go to places and you can’t hear because it’s so noisy but in this venue you can talk normally.
“Everything about it has seemed pretty easy.”
“For us, a lot of business is coming from trade, which is why this event is very important for us,” says Li Li.
The 2025 trade event was a “milestone for the industry”, says Lynda, and was expected to reinforce New Zealand’s reputation as a leader in sustainable and high value tourism across all markets and segments.
“This year’s evolved and standalone event reflects our commitment to providing a platform that fosters meaningful connections, drives business opportunities for our members, and strengthens our country’s position on the global tourism stage,” says Lynda.
The event also hosted guest representatives from the Department of Conservation, Immigration New Zealand, Qualmark and NZ Māori Tourism.
