Rene de Monchy: Chief Executive of Tourism NZ comments on positive new numbers

Queenstown is now just 5% shy of pre-COVID levels. 

Records show that there were 192,000 international arrivals between January and August, up 14% on 2024.

Australia continues to dominate the market, making up 40% of all visitors to the region. 

Chief Executive of Tourism NZ Rene de Monchy told Mike Hosking that, 'the outlook for summer is actually really positive is what we're hearing from operators across the board.'

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
More uplifting news though in the meantime around tourism, Queenstown
is now at ninety five percent of pre COVID, so
there's been one hundred and ninety two thousand international rivals
between jan and August of this year. That's up fourteen
percent on last year. Australia's You're King of the Castle.
Forty percent of every international rival is from Australia. Reno
de marsh is the chief executive of Tourism New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Back with us.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Morning to you, Good morning, Mike. Does summer look good
at the Ford bookings? Bullish?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yeah, the Ford bookings are pretty bullish actually, I mean
we're pretty pleased to see the momentum continue to grow
as you see it in your intro. So you know,
August as a month was up seven point five percent
on August last year, and the outlook for summer is
actually really positive, is what we're hearing from operators across
the board. So that's that's really good news for the industry.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
It's Queenstown, the Canary and the tourism coal mine where
they go, they'll eventually get to the rest of the
country or we can't say that.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Well, look, I mean, Queenstown is hugely popular, as you know,
and their recovery is leading the rest of the country.
It's also true that, as you mentioned that the number
of Australians coming here. You know, it's one of the
better connected airports. You've got all the different carriers that
are flying into Queenstown, so it's very easy to get
there from the Eastern seaboard. But look, really what's really
important is that we continue to promote all of the country.

(01:16):
You know, Queenstown is one destination, but there are many
great destinations. So we need to continue to work hard
to really get people out and about and around the country.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Are we tapping out the Australian market. I mean, that's
a heavy reliance on one market, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
No, we're not tapping it out. I mean it's a
huge market and it's the only one obviously that's close by,
you know. And it's fair to say Australia is stronger
now than it has been, but it's only probably about
five or six percentage points. So previously Australia was always
close to about forty percent of all arrivals. It's a
little higher than that at the moment. But we're really
making the most of that. Lots of Australians you know,

(01:51):
are going, we really want to get over to New Zealand,
so we want to make the most of that opportunity.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Is our promotional work actually working? Can you kpi it
and so meant X and got y?

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah? Absolutely, we do that across all of the work
that we do. We look at it at a campaign level,
We look at what are the different metrics we also
track to do our research and ask consumers, you know,
are they getting and they're now feeling they're more ready
to book than they were before. So not only are
we tracking bookings off the back of our work, but
also looking at people is their intent to book increasing?

(02:23):
Because you know, a holiday you've got to take a
bit of time, you've got to plan it, you got
to take leave. So we track all of those metrics
across the work that we do.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Our beleagued dollar must be good, mustn't If you, even
if you're Australian, you're looking at a good number at
the moment, aren't you?

Speaker 2 (02:37):
What's that? Sorry?

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Are you're looking at a good number at the moment
if you're our beleaguered dollar?

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah? Absolutely, Look I think there is you know that
is helping us a bit of a tail wind certainly
out if you look out of the US market as well.
Strong US dollar to the New Zealand dollar. I think
that certainly helps make it easier to make a travel decision.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Well, let's hope it's great summer. Good to catch up,
appreciate it. Renee de Monho's the cheap executive of two
New Zealand. Just while I'm on the broad subject tourism
holdings expecting to return to profitability, one of the big
players in the market. Of course, they're all over the world,
grant webs to the chief executive, a semi regular on
this particular program, but they've seen growth here. Australia, Canada,
the UK and Ireland are the Ford Book remainder of

(03:16):
the financial year in New Zealand, Australia, Canada twenty percent
ahead of last year. We remain confident that we've turned
the corner, so we wish them well.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
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