‘India offers limitless potential’

René de Monchy, Chief Executive Officer, Tourism New Zealand, says that Indians visiting their country, particularly during the off-peak season, could avail the benefit of better rates and superior experiences.

Hazel Jain

René de Monchy, Chief Executive Officer, Tourism New Zealand, was in India recently leading a delegation of 41 Kiwi tourism operators, including DMCs, hotels airports, and airlines, for its flagship B2B platform – Kiwi Link India. It was for the first time since 2019 that Tourism New Zealand delegation visited India to promote inbound tourism. The visit aimed to connect Indian travel trade with the New Zealand operators, as almost 85 per cent of travellers from India booked through the travel trade, revealed Monchy.

“We have just initiated our new four-year strategy; the focus is really on making New Zealand desirable as a year-round destination. So, this means promoting off-peak season, which is March to November. One of the challenges for us is that in the three months of December to February, 37 per cent of arrivals and 40 per cent of spend occurs. So, we are focussed on making New Zealand a year-round destination. It is a great opportunity for us, and we will promote our activities, whether it is adventure tourism, mountain biking, wellness, or wine tourism, to India,” says Monchy.

The total arrivals of Indians to New Zealand in 2023 was 84,315. Of this, holiday arrivals were 20,100. The total recovery of arrivals was 125.9 per cent while the recovery of holiday arrivals was 70.6 per cent, compared to 2019. To further equip Indian travel agents with destination familiarity, a comprehensive frontline product training session was also conducted on the sidelines of Kiwi Link India. “We see strong recovery and our target is to grow tourism by 5 billion NZ dollars over the next five years and we want 70 per cent of that to come in the off-peak. We see India as a strong contributor to that. India offers limitless potential as a growth market for us. While our top three markets are Australia, US and China, India certainly offers the biggest opportunity for future growth,” he says.