8.45am

Mihi Whakatau 

Mana Whenua 

8.55am

Summit welcome - MC

Jenny-May Clarkson

9.05am

Tourism Industry Aotearoa

Speaker: Rebecca Ingram, Chief Executive, Tourism Industry Aotearoa

9.20am

Air New Zealand

Speaker: Kiri Hannifin, Chief Sustainability, Brand and Corporate Affairs Officer, Air New Zealand

9.35am

Trends shaping tomorrow's Chinese visitor  

Speaker: George Cao, Co-founder & CEO, Dragon Trail International

George Cao is Co-founder and CEO of Dragon Trail International and a globally recognised expert in tourism strategy, digital travel ecosystems, destination marketing, and traveller behaviour, particularly relating to the Chinese market. China is New Zealand’s third largest visitor market and visitor spend in this market is growing. Chinese traveller habits are changing too, including how they plan or research destinations, and what they do once they’re on the ground. In his keynote, George will share international insights on destination competitiveness, emerging traveller trends, the role of technology and distribution, and how destinations can create distinctive experiences that drive growth and conversion. George’s keynote is supported by Tourism New Zealand.

10.00am

Panel: Global Shifts: Navigating the New Global Landscape

Facilitator: Corin Dann, joined by Kelly Eckhold Chief Economist at Westpac New Zealand, Hon. Tim Groser, Minister of Trade and Felicity Roxburgh, Executive Director at The New Zealand International Business Forum (NZIBF). 

As geopolitical tensions rise, trade relationships evolve, and economic power continues to shift, understanding the global environment has never been more important for New Zealand businesses.

Facilitated by political reporter Corin Dann, this panel will explore the major global trends and geopolitical developments shaping the world today. Joined by Hon. Tim Groser, former Minister of Trade, Kelly Eckhold, Chief Economist of Westpac New Zealand and Felicity Roxburgh, Executive Director of the New Zealand International Business Forum (NZIBF), the discussion will unpack the forces influencing international trade, economic growth, investment, and business confidence. From changing alliances and protectionist policies to emerging opportunities in key markets, the panel will examine what these shifts mean for New Zealand and the tourism sector.

Designed to provide context, insight, and perspective, this session will help delegates better understand the global forces shaping the operating environment and the challenges and opportunities likely to define the years ahead.

10.30am

Morning tea

11.00am 

The Power of Being Distinctive

Speaker: Tabitha Harris, Co-founder, OHO

Tabitha is a brand strategist and creative director whose career spans Aotearoa and international markets. With a unique focus on bringing strategic thinking and creative direction together to ensure strong market positioning, audience conversion and loyalty and increased footfall, following, fandom, visitation or dwell time. 

She has led large-scale rebrands, international marketing rollouts and retail fit outs and activations for global brands including Nike, Converse and L’Oréal as well as brings a niche specialism in placemaking – particularly for tourism, retail and public realm sectors. Including sports stadiums (Tottenham Hotspur), boutique London hotels, Heathrow airport, and plenty of bespoke music festivals, beauty and wellness, food and beverage, and mixed-use residential, co-working and hospitality developments across London and Dubai. In NZ, Tabitha has worked on destination brands, research and insight reports, marketing and social playbooks and marketing campaigns for councils, government agencies, SME’s, local operators and community groups.   

For this conversation, Tabitha brings a uniquely cross-disciplinary perspective on the art of placemaking and placebranding in NZ: how we define what makes a place distinctive here, translate that into a compelling value proposition, and build brands that are meaningful to the people who live, work, visit and invest in them.

11.30am

Decisions by Design: How Leaders Measure What Matters

Speaker: Jonas Bengtsson, Global Director of Impact and Co-Founder of Edge Impact 

If you're intentionally designing your business to achieve specific outcomes, how do you know whether your decisions are actually making a difference? 

As geopolitical tensions rise, trade relationships evolve, and economic power continues to shift, understanding the global environment has never been more important for New Zealand businesses.

In this thought-provoking session, Jonas Bengtsson explores how leaders can balance commercial, community, and environmental outcomes without becoming overwhelmed by metrics. Drawing on real-world examples from global organisations, he'll share practical approaches to identifying the measures that matter most, integrating outcomes into decision-making, and creating clarity in complex systems. 

You'll also hear how Optus and Singtel used an organisational life cycle assessment to build a strong foundation for everything from science-based targets and Scope 3 emissions to modern slavery reporting, making compliance and reporting significantly easier over time.

Whether you're leading a large organisation or a small tourism business, this session will provide practical insights into measuring impact, focusing effort, and making better strategic decisions. 

12.00pm

Designing Sustainability that Actually Works

Speaker: Peri Drysdale, Founder and Chief Executive, Untouched World Ltd

Sustainability is often approached as a compliance exercise, reporting requirement or added cost. But what if it became one of your business’s greatest sources of value and competitive advantage?

In this keynote, Peri Drysdale, founder of Untouched World Ltd, will draw on decades of experience building a successful global business grounded in sustainable principles. She will share why sustainability and commercial success are not competing priorities, and how embedding purpose into an organisation’s culture and decision-making can strengthen both business performance and environmental outcomes.

Drawing parallels between sustainable fashion and tourism, Peri will explore why distinctive design begins with heart, not scale. Through the principles of whakapapa (connection), kaitiakitanga (guardianship) and ohaoha (reciprocity), she will challenge delegates to think beyond transactional experiences and consider how their businesses can create deeper connections, restore the environments and communities they rely on, and generate lasting value.

Delegates will leave with a fresh perspective on sustainability, not as an obligation, but as an opportunity to make smarter, more intentional decisions that benefit their business, their people and the places in which they operate.

12.30pm - 1.30pm

Lunch

1.30pm - 2.15pm

Focus Sessions

Session 1: AI in 2027

Speaker: C.A. Clark, Vice President of AI, Miles Partnership 

As people move beyond using AI as a fancy search engine, they are asking it to do more: plan, create, make decisions and take actions. At the same time, AI’s capabilities are expanding rapidly, opening up new possibilities every day for how we live, work and travel. 

From travel assistants and live translation to robots and immersive virtual worlds, C.A. Clark explores the AI developments that could shape tourism in 2027 and beyond. Drawing on surprising examples from the frontiers of AI and practical tourism case studies, he connects the possibilities to how visitors discover, plan and experience New Zealand. Expect an accessible, thought-provoking session with a clear sense of what tourism businesses can use now, what to prepare for next, and what remains on the horizon. 

Session 2: Employment Brand: The Workplace Advantage

Facilitator: Nikki Taylor, Tailored Collabs, joined by Jason Hill, Managing Director at Tourism Talent and Michal Pawlowicz, Head of Learning & Organisational Development at Hind Management and Emma Shanks, People and Culture Manager at Willowbank Wildlife Reserve

Attracting and retaining talent is one of the biggest challenges facing tourism businesses, but employment brand is about much more than recruitment. It is the lived experience of your people, the culture you create, and the way your business is designed to support people to grow, contribute and stay. 

This practical panel discussion will explore how tourism businesses can take a more intentional approach to designing their workplace and employment brand. Through perspectives from recruitment, organisational development and tourism operators, the session will look at what people are looking for from employers, how businesses can create stronger career pathways and cultures, and how a distinctive employee experience can support a stronger visitor experience. 

Delegates will leave with practical ideas for strengthening their own employment brand, from small actions that improve retention, to bigger shifts in how businesses position themselves as places people want to work.

Session 3: Beyond the Border: Designing Tourism From the Inside Out 

Speakers: Kylie Ruwhiu-Karawana, Managing Director, TRC Tourism

Around the world, communities are challenging traditional models of tourism development and asking a different question: not simply how tourism can grow, but what tourism is for, who shapes it and who ultimately benefits.

Drawing on TRC Tourism’s work across Aotearoa, Australia, the Pacific and beyond, the presentation would share lessons from Indigenous and community-led approaches to tourism, destination stewardship and resilience. It would explore how local knowledge, cultural authority, purposeful engagement and community leadership can create experiences that are commercially strong, deeply connected to place and impossible to replicate elsewhere.

Session 4: Designed for Everyone: Unlocking New Zealand's Accessible Tourism Opportunity

Speaker: Paula Tesoriero MNZM, Chief Executive of Whaikaha – Ministry of Disabled People and New Zealand's former Disability Rights Commissioner

New Zealand has a major untapped tourism opportunity in front of us. Accessible tourism accounts for 17% of tourism spending in Australia, suggesting an opportunity worth almost NZ$8 billion a year in New Zealand.

Join Paula Tesoriero MNZM, Chief Executive of Whaikaha – Ministry of Disabled People and New Zealand's former Disability Rights Commissioner, for an engaging discussion on how accessibility can help create better visitor experiences, unlock new market opportunities, and strengthen New Zealand's reputation as a destination designed for everyone.

Through a combination of leadership insights, international perspectives and practical New Zealand examples, the workshop will explore the growing importance of accessible tourism for disabled people, older travellers, whānau and visitors from around the world. Participants will hear about global trends, emerging opportunities, and the experiences of tourism operators who are already making accessibility work in practice.

The session will feature keynote reflections, expert interviews, real-world approaches and a sector call to action. Importantly, it is intended to be more than a one-off conversation, helping to build momentum for ongoing industry collaboration and a future accessible tourism leadership network to support New Zealand's journey towards becoming a more inclusive and accessible destination for all.

2.15pm - 2.25pm

Room transition

2.25pm - 3.05pm

Focus Sessions

The above sessions repeated

3.05pm

Afternoon tea

3.30pm 

Designed to Perform: Building a Tourism Business That Benefits from Change

Speaker: David Altena, Strategic Engagement Manager, Quanton

Tourism businesses are operating in an environment of rising costs, workforce pressures, changing visitor expectations and continual disruption. While the sector has proven its ability to adapt, the next challenge is to move beyond responding to change and build businesses deliberately designed to benefit from it.

In this session, business performance strategist David Altena will explore how tourism operators can create sustainable competitive advantage by generating greater value from the resources they already have and making more deliberate investment decisions.

Using tourism-specific examples, including pricing and yield, workforce deployment, visitor experience and operational automation, David will show how stronger commercial outcomes come from better choices about business design and where value is created, helping lift productivity and strengthen commercial performance. He will also explore where data, AI and automation can accelerate performance and support better decision-making.

Delegates will gain a practical framework for investing time, people and capital more effectively, reducing unnecessary complexity, and building businesses that become stronger as change accelerates.

This session will challenge tourism leaders to think beyond volume, create greater value from existing opportunities, and build businesses designed to perform over the long term.

3.55pm

The cultures that built me. The cultures that broke me

Speaker: Craig Hudson, Chief Growth Officer, AgriSea NZ

Craig Hudson played professional rugby in New Zealand, France and England, before a career ending illness struck when he was 23.

He had to rebuild himself in life and in business. He joined McFall Fuel as their first sales hire and help grow the business at over 80% YOY for 6 years, then spent eight and a half years at Xero. Firstly leading its expansion into Europe, the Middle East and South Africa, and then five and a half years as Managing Director for New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, where the New Zealand business grew from 186,000 to 512,000 subscribers. He is now with AgriSea New Zealand as Chief Growth Officer.

His talk draws on five very different cultures: one that was world-class, two that nearly finished him, one that put him back together, and one where he finally got to use everything the other four had taught him. Audiences leave with six things a high-performing culture actually needs, each one attached to a story and or a scar rather than a model out of a book.

4.25pm

Summit closing - MC

4.30pm

Summit ends

6.30pm

Pre-dinner drinks

Venue: Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre

7pm - 11pm

New Zealand Tourism Awards dinner

Venue: Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre

Join us as we showcase and celebrate the tourism industry’s individual and business successes of 2026!