Kia ora koutou. Ko Rebecca Ingram toku ingoa.Nau mai hareae mai – welcome to Auckland and to the 32nd edition of TRENZ. 

Firstly, a very warm welcome to our distinguished guests: 

Prime Minister, Rt Hon Christopher Luxon and Hon Louise Upston – Minister of Tourism and Hospitality, who are currently walking the TRENZ floor and will be with us from morning tea. 
Glen Bennett, Labour spokesperson for Tourism and Hospitality
Deputy Mayor for Auckland, Desley Simpson
Welcome to our partners, members and officials from various government departments. And, to our speakers today – your willingness to share what you're seeing and thinking is what makes this morning valuable.
To our wonderful sponsors, Air New Zealand, Tourism New Zealand and Tātaki Auckland Unlimited, our industry partner Auckland Airport, and our event partners Christchurch Airport and the Tranzit Group – TRENZ doesn’t happen without you. Your investment goes well beyond the event itself, and TRENZ is better for it. Nga mihi. 
You will hear from me twice today. Across my remarks 
I’ll answer a few questions:
What can TRENZ tell you about tourism in New Zealand?
In a disrupted world what holds true?
And, why having a plan matters.

Let’s start with some numbers:  
Tourism is a strategic asset for the New Zealand economy.
We’re one of the country’s largest employers, directly and indirectly supporting almost 330,000 jobs - that’s one in every nine jobs.
For the year ended 2025, tourism generated $46.6 billion in visitor spending across the country, including $18.1 billion from international visitors, up 7%.
That visitor spending translated into a 7.7% of New Zealand’s GDP, reinforcing tourism’s importance to the national economy. The industry is on track toward its Tourism 2050 goal of contributing $55 billion annually by 2030.
In 2025 New Zealand tourism was finding its groove again. International arrivals moved upwards and confidence lifted across the sector. 
This momentum didn’t happen by chance. 
It reflects the dedication of tourism businesses across the country, supported by increased air connectivity and targeted government investment in marketing, business events, major events and improved visa settings. 
Feedback from some members was that they had a record summer, despite some regions experiencing disruption due to major weather events.
The positive momentum gave us a strong platform to cope with the disruption of the Iran War when it arrived on 28 February, and with it, sharp increases in costs that tourism businesses are adapting to or absorbing as best they can.  
There have been limited impacts on international visitor arrivals to date, with March and April showing very good performance despite trimmed international air capacity. 
Tourism in New Zealand is showing resilience, but there is a strong focus needed for the summer 26/27. 
In this context, the timing of TRENZ couldn’t be better.

 
TRENZ 2026
TRENZ is the platform that elevates our industry to the world. TRENZ is our moment to shine.
16,000 meetings will take place over 2.5 days, and this year TRENZ will deliver at least $3m to Auckland as the host region. 

So, what does TRENZ tell us about tourism in New Zealand? 
We have 379 buyers from 27 countries at TRENZ, the highest since 2019. A strong signal that New Zealand is in demand.  
These buyers all have choices, so how we show up right now shapes the decisions they make about New Zealand for years to come. 
Looking at the tourism businesses here, 33 of our 315 operators are new to TRENZ. That’s a 60% increase on last year and a strong signal of industry confidence and focus. 
When you look at who's on the show floor this week, you get a real picture of where New Zealand tourism is right now. 
Wellness and restorative experiences appear strongly across regions. It's a genuine national strength, and international demand for slow, restorative travel is meeting a need we're well placed to deliver.
There are 35 Māori tourism businesses here, up again from last year. What they offer is central to how international visitors experience NZ. 
Food and wine tourism has genuine breadth - from cellar doors, lodge stays, dining experiences and curated touring. It's a substantive part of the offering now. 
As is water… 
Marine and water-based experiences are hot, more than a quarter of the new sellers I mentioned before are offering kayak, cruise, ocean adventure or harbour tour. 
It is the connection to nature that runs through almost everything. Wildlife, conservation, geothermal, forests - whether it's Zealandia in Wellington, Sanctuary Mountain in Waikato, or the Royal Albatross Centre in Dunedin, connecting with New Zealand's natural environment is a core part of the offering.

So that's the picture. 
A focussed industry, strong product, and a room full of people who are serious about doing business.
This morning you'll hear from some of the leaders who are shaping what comes next. I'll be back later to talk about how New Zealand sets itself apart in a world that's changing fast.

Main Speech
Hello again. 
Here we are: operators, stakeholders, local government, media - who have chosen, in a world with more options than ever, to be here in person. Doing business face to face. Building relationships with handshakes and conversations rather than screens and algorithms.

THE WORLD WE'RE COMPETING IN
First, let’s look at the world that we’re competing in. Global tourism is currently experiencing record-breaking growth. 
The travel and tourism sector is growing faster than the global economy, contributing a record US$11.6 trillion to global GDP in 2025 – that’s almost 10% of the global economy.
The competitive landscape has changed. Every destination in the world has a strategy. Every destination has a story. 
The question isn't whether New Zealand is a great destination. The question is whether we can be agile enough to compete for the travellers we want, in a marketplace that is getting harder to navigate, not easier.
When global events create uncertainty for tourism, TIA's job is to be across it quickly. Coordinating intelligence, staying close to government, keeping the industry informed.

So, what’s actually changing? 
The way people find, choose and book travel has changed more in the last three years than in the previous thirty.
AI can now build a personalised itinerary in seconds. It brings together thousands of reviews into a single recommendation. It generates images of a place you've never been, written in your language, pitched at your interests, priced to your budget. 
For tourism businesses the relationship between a traveller and a destination is increasingly being mediated by a platform or an algorithm. 
A recent US study by Phocuswright showed that over half of US travellers are now actively using AI to inform their travel booking decisions. These AI travellers are profiling as younger, taking more trips annually and spending significantly more on travel during these trips.
AI is a fact of the landscape we're operating in, and the opportunities are there for tourism operators to use it to its fullest potential.
If AI can plan the trip, describe the destination, recommend the operator and generate the content — what can’t it do?
It can’t give comfort or reassurance on your travels like a guide or agent can. 
And it can’t make you feel.
People don't travel to gather information.
They travel because they are seeking a feeling. Often one they couldn't name before they had it. Perspective. Renewal. Contact with something ancient or vast. Discovery. The quality of being somewhere that is not their ordinary life.
And here's why I think matters globally right now.
We are living in a world that is becoming more polarised, more digital, more algorithmic. Platforms are showing people more of what they already believe. Screens are mediating more of our relationships.
In that environment, travel is one of the few remaining forces that puts people in genuine contact with one another. With other cultures, other landscapes, other ways of being in the world.
That's not a small thing. That is a function tourism performs almost like nothing else.

NEW ZEALAND'S PLACE
So where does New Zealand sit in this?
New Zealand creates a particular kind of feeling that is not generic. It is something to do with scale. The landscape here is vast relative to the human. 
You can be genuinely alone in New Zealand in a way that is almost impossible in many parts of the world.
It is also something to do with the beautiful culture that is imbedded across our rohe. Te ao Māori is not a layer applied over our tourism product. It is woven into what this place is — the names, the values, the way the land, water, mountains and the sky are understood.
In tourism we express this through Tiaki – Care for New Zealand, and our operators live and breathe these values - and seek to instil them in visitors at every opportunity.
The data tells us that many international travellers share specific feelings about their New Zealand experience, using words like welcomed, safe and relaxed, saying they feel deeply connected to nature and our environment, and that locals are friendly and helpful.
That feeling is New Zealand's competitive advantage.  
And in a world that is becoming more synthetic, more screen-mediated and more polarised — the demand for the feeling that New Zealand delivers is not decreasing. It is increasing.

WHAT TIA IS DOING ABOUT IT
TIA’s members are navigating a world of genuine complexity. The global marketplace is shifting under their feet. Cost pressures that don't ease up. A workforce picture that is still difficult in some parts of the country.
That complexity is real. And absorbing it alone, as an individual business, is genuinely hard.
That is exactly why TIA exists. To make sure you're not absorbing it alone. To bring intelligence to the table so you're not navigating blind.
To advocate in the places where decisions get made, before the decisions are made. And to give the industry a collective strength that no individual operator can generate on their own.

TOURISM 2050
Three years ago, TIA published Tourism 2050 – a Blueprint for Impact. It was the right document for the world we were in and has been the cornerstone of New Zealand's tourism industry strategy since then. 
It sets a clear vision for tourism in NZ and ten priority actions to advance the industry toward 2030 and beyond.

2050 is our plan and with it we have made progress. 
A Tourism Policy Statement is in development – thank you Minister.
There is open dialogue on sustainable tourism funding. 
We have launched new business capability programs for members including Akiaki, and new data products. Projects to give you the information you need. 
Tiaki continues to go from strength to strength. 
And last week changes were announced by Government that will significantly modernize how tourism and conservation can operate together for mutual benefit. 
The operating environment for tourism has also shifted since 2023. 
Geopolitical uncertainty; AI; the need for a structured response to climate resilience and adaptation and changes to Local Government are all shaping tourism. 
For these reasons, now is the right time to refresh our plan. 
The refresh will not start from scratch. Tourism 2050's vision, framework, and ten-actions architecture remain sound. The focus will be on updating the strategic context, strengthening the measurement framework, and sharpening specific actions where needed.
TIA expects to complete the refresh by August, following consultation with our members. 

CLOSE
I want to finish where I started. The fact that 1200 people are here.
In a world where so much can be mediated by a screen — we all chose to be in Auckland. To meet in person. To have the conversations you can only have when you're in the room together. To do business with trade partners that love New Zealand and represent us proudly back home. 
New Zealand has something the world needs more of right now. We are in the business of changing how people feel — about themselves, about other cultures, about the natural world.
New Zealand is well placed, but our advantage is not automatic. It has to be understood, protected, designed for, and well promoted.
That's the work. And we're in it together.
Thank you for joining us at TRENZ today. It’s a pleasure to host you. 
Ngā mihi / Kia ora