Tourism Tinder: NZ set to make 16,000 hookups in Rotorua
Sunday, 4 May 2025
We’re going to be selling our night skies and Milky Way, oysters, wine, harbours, lakes and mountains to the world, and we’ll be moving fast.
In Rotorua this week, TRENZ, a strategic event for New Zealand's tourism industry, brings travel trade buyers from across the globe to meet with local businesses.
In two-and-a-half days there will be 16,000 business meetings, Tourism Industry Aotearoa (TIA) chief executive Rebecca Ingram tells the Sunday Star-Times.
Speed dating, then?
“It’s speed pitching,” she says, it brings together operators [sellers] with targeted international buyers - 340 of them from 26 markets, among them Australia, China, the US, UK, Japan, and India.
“Everyone who's attending has an appointment book with 52 potential business meetings. When you extrapolate that out with all of the businesses and all of the buyers, that’s 16,000 business meetings that will occur next week.”
Some buyers have long standing relationships with Kiwi operators, but TRENZ is always adding new companies and new products, for about 1200 delegates from 26 countries to see.
TRENZ is unique in its focus on a single country, Ingram says, and helps new products and businesses get international exposure.
It works, she says - 74% of sellers from the 2024 event expected to generate more than $50,000 in turnover as a result.
Of these, 58% expected to generate more than $100,000 of turnover. That’s more jobs, more tax revenue, more work for those who offer services to the tourism companies - economic ripples galore.
Among the new products on show in Rotorua will be Star Flight - a night sky zip-lining adventure in Kaikōura, run by EcoZip managing director Gavin Oliver.
Kaikōura was in September 2023 awarded International Dark Sky Sanctuary status, one of 22 places in the world. Star Flight is a world first, Oliver says.
Guests spend more than three hours ziplining and star gazing with a renowned astral photographer, Rachel Gillespie. Ziplines are 620m long, and 100m up. The last run is in complete darkness under a canopy of stars (weather permitting).
Oliver is excited about the product, and the chance to sell it to the world.
TRENZ is “very important … a marquee event for us”.
“We're a small New Zealand business. We've only got around 30 staff for most of the year. It isn’t possible to get out and get the kind of international reach that TRENZ gets us,” he says.
“TIA brings all these folks to New Zealand and we get to talk to them. It’s a reach as a small business we couldn't get for ourselves.”
EcoZip is “adventure tourism for the non-adventurous,” he says.
“Our oldest guest so far is 95 and our youngest was a four-year-old. So really, it's a heck of a lot of fun, but behind the business there’s huge conservation, sustainability, and environmental focus.”
The experience starts at dusk, in the heart of Dark Sky Sanctuary. Zip one is just as the light is beginning to fade.
“By the time you’re at the end of zip two, the sun has dropped completely and you’re zipping in pure darkness, which is a quite unique feeling, because you completely lose those reference points of height and speed.”
There’s a break before guests do the fourth zip. Time for “astral selfies”.
“We’ve got lounger chairs set out and our clients relax in the darkness, and lie there looking up at the night sky, while we serve them hot drinks and snacks.”
The astral photographer talks to them about the night sky and the importance of the Dark Sky Sanctuary, then they get photographs.
“We call them astral selfies, photos of themselves under the Milky Way. It's brilliant, a brilliant innovation, and the feedback has been incredible.”
EcoZip started on Waiheke Island in 2012, surviving Covid (70% of its business had been international tourists). Kaikōura was 10 years in the making, with the massive earthquake there delaying it. Now though, it’s zipping along.
“We use the business to fund all sorts of things, from native tree planting, to weed and pest eradication programmes, we support children's charities and offer educational scholarships, and much more, so it’s fun, but with a social and environmental legacy … you couldn't get a lighter environmental footprint,” Oliver says.
Among other new offerings at TRENZ are the Fullers electric hydrofoil Kermadec, which scoots across the Hauraki Gulf on foils, in a fashion similar to the America’s Cup yachts, with different motive power.
Setting out from Viaduct Harbour Marina a trip is a learning experience as well as a sightseeing one. The crew provides a tour and an explanation of how the ferry glides across the water.
Fullers touts it as great views and engaging commentary on Auckland landmarks, history, and marine environment. As well there’s a piccolo of Moët champagne, premium cheeses and gourmet morsels.
It seats up to six guests, and completing the “first-in-the-world electric hydrofoiling tourism experience” takes 40 minutes.
On the outskirts of Bay of Plenty town Whakatane, TRENZ newcomer Tio Ōhiwa offers another variation on the salt water experience.
A Māori-owned oyster farm and takeaway shop located in Ōhiwa, it offers visitors a history lesson, oyster farming, cultural significance and trips on the harbour on what they call “our immersive cruise tours”.
Tio Ōhiwa tours (about 90 minutes) are seafood focused - an oyster experience teaches the handy art of shucking oysters, followed by kaimoana tastings.
Ōhiwa Oyster Farm started in 1968 with a lease of 2.2ha and after 54 years in business across multiple owners Ngāti Awa descendants bought into it.
Tio Ohiwa says it prides itself on growing oysters with care, and harvesting them with respect for the environment.
Christchurch Adventure Park in the Port Hills and Wellington’s Kaewa Tours are among the new offerings. The adventure park has mountain bike, zipline and sightseeing adventures.
Kaewa Tours is a family-owned company established late 2020 dedicated to private bespoke tours of up to 14 people tailored specifically for your group.
Director, primary travel guide, ‘memory creator’ and foodie Tom Collier says the company can also plan wider tours throughout New Zealand with a personal driver/guide for the duration.
Kaewa also offer combo tours (2-3 days) of Wellington-Kāpiti, Wairarapa-Kāpiti or Wellington-Kāpiti-Wairarapa with a homestay which includes a continental breakfast.
Ingram says planning for TRENZ 2026 started three months ago. Where it will be held has not yet been announced, but the lucky host will reap economic benefits.
TRENZ generated $3 million worth of economic activity for Wellington when it hosted last year.
“There's no doubt that the business that will be done next week in Rotorua will turn up as GDP for our economy, as jobs and our communities,” she says.
“When a tourism business is doing well, the ripple effect of it is really significant. So TRENZ is about how we keep New Zealand top of mind for these global buyers.”
It gives New Zealand a foothold in the global tourism market, of which it occupies only a minute proportion, she says.
“When you think about all of the world's travel, we are quite a small slice. And so we have to really punch above our weight,” she says.
“We've got to be competitive. We need to really leverage our strengths and there's nothing like giving people the ability to come to New Zealand, to experience New Zealand, and also to have these conversations.
“Face to face relationships really matter. Tourism is a people business. It's all about giving visitors an amazing experience.
“It is really important that we say to the world, come to us. Come do business here. Come and see what's new in tourism in New Zealand, come and see what we're developing and upgrading.
“It’s a very exciting time for the industry. Everyone looks forward to it and when tourism is doing well, New Zealand does well because we are in every community, we are diverse, we are growing, we are innovative and exciting, so yes, it's a really great week.
“I won't be stressed next week. I will be very busy.”
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