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The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has published an independent review of New Zealand’s approach to events.
The review outlines that New Zealand’s events system isn’t set up to get the most out of the events it already has. The review, carried out by MartinJenkins and in collaboration with Daylight, Purple Moon and an independent advisor looked at how the country plans, funds and delivers everything from mega events down to community gatherings, and compared New Zealand against Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, Scotland, Wales, Denmark, Singapore and British Columbia.
Events generated more than $2 billion in direct economic impact over the past year. Public events brought in $1.1 billion in spending on accommodation, restaurants and transport, off nearly 18 million attendances. Multi-day business events added a further $925 million.
The review also points to the Major Events Development Fund’s track record – 18 supported events returned $32.1 million in net economic benefit from $7.2 million invested a 4.5 times return.
The review’s main finding is that decisions get made event by event, with no one holding a national view of a full list of events planned. Public and business events are managed separately despite overlapping benefits, funding tools are narrower and shorter-term than the opportunities need, and the whole system relies heavily on informal relationships and goodwill rather than formal structure.
The warning is: New Zealand risks losing high-value events to better-organised competitors overseas.
The review sets out five shifts it wants to see moving from event-by-event decisions to portfolio thinking and instead of a scattered strategy approach, refine it to a single national direction, from narrow funding tools to coordinated investment, from informal coordination to a proper ownership role and from inconsistent legacy planning to building public value in from the start.
The key recommendation outlined is a National Events Strategy which is a shared framework covering why government gets involved, which events it prioritises, how investment is structured, and how central and local government split the work.
Two funding scenarios are developed. An enabling phase would cost roughly $25–29 million a year, a $11–15 million lift on current Major Events Development Fund and Conference Assistance Programme funding. It’s projected to bring in 8,000–9,500 extra international visitors a year and 40–60 additional business-event bids.
A longer-term “backing” model would run to $40–46 million a year and would need a new National Events Investment Platform. Projected returns are bigger too – 18,500–21,500 additional international visitors annually and around 150 international business-event bids worth an estimated $350 million.
The review sets out three phases: enabling (2026/27–2027/28) to build the strategy and foundations, development (2027/28–2028/29) to test and refine it, and backing (from 2029/30) if the evidence and funding stack up.
But MBIE is clear the findings aren’t government policy yet, and any funding or institutional changes still need to go through the usual policy and Budget processes.
Read the full MBIE independent review and summary here
