Tourism New Zealand spent greater than $9.4 million on influencer advertising campaigns between January 2024 and September 2025, in keeping with paperwork launched below the Official Info Act. The company engaged 65 influencers throughout international markets, however declined to supply particular person cost breakdowns, citing industrial sensitivity.
The disclosure, obtained by the Taxpayers’ Union of New Zealand, reveals spending of $1.2 million in fiscal yr 2023/24, $6.1 million in 2024/25, and $2.1 million within the first quarter of 2025/26. The figures embrace journey prices, manufacturing bills, company charges, influencer funds, occasions, and different in-market expenditures.
The influencer partnerships focused markets together with america, United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, China, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Canada, and Germany. Campaigns ranged from selling New Zealand as a “Minecraft” downloadable content material vacation spot to stargazing tourism, off-peak journey, and vacation spot advocacy.
Tourism New Zealand Chief Government René de Monchy said within the response that the group “makes use of a standardised choice course of to make sure that messaging and content material attain the supposed viewers, align with our model, and ship a return on funding.”
The company mentioned it evaluates influencers based mostly on social profile, attain, engagement, and market suitability to characterize the New Zealand model. In response to de Monchy, “a key influencer should have a real need to companion with Tourism New Zealand to have one of the best consequence as an genuine storyteller.”
Efficiency Metrics and Analysis
Tourism New Zealand revealed it measures marketing campaign effectiveness by means of 4 key indicators: marketing campaign recognition, together with attain and engagement; skill to construct optimistic perceptions of New Zealand; impression on producing vacation curiosity; and understanding of marketing campaign messages.
The company supplied Equal Promoting Worth (EAV) figures representing what comparable protection would have price to buy. The 2023/24 campaigns generated $307 million in EAV, whereas 2024/25 campaigns produced $389 million. The primary quarter of 2025/26 yielded $148 million in EAV, although some campaigns had not but launched on the time of reporting.
Tourism New Zealand famous that inside reporting and evaluations are structured round complete campaigns moderately than particular person advertising elements, making it unable to attribute a portion of EAV on to influencer content material.
The disclosure comes as journey content material on YouTube grew 64% within the second quarter of 2025, in keeping with digital promoting agency Pixability. The journey class generated 593 billion views in Q2 2025, with creator-driven accounts comprising 95% of the highest 4,000 channels by viewership. Pixability analysis signifies that customers are 98% extra prone to belief suggestions from YouTube creators than from creators on different social platforms.
Transparency Issues
Taxpayers’ Union Investigations Coordinator Rhys Hurley mentioned: “Tourism New Zealand has racked up likes, views, and follows, however with regards to exhausting numbers, the company can’t truly present what these influencers delivered.”
Hurley added: “If influencers are being paid to promote New Zealand to the world, taxpayers should understand how a lot they have been straight paid and what they really delivered in return.”
Tourism New Zealand’s response said that charges paid to influencers are commercially delicate, stopping the disclosure of particular person cost quantities or detailed deliverables from influencers.
Elevate your perspective with NextTech Information, the place innovation meets perception.
Uncover the most recent breakthroughs, get unique updates, and join with a worldwide community of future-focused thinkers.
Unlock tomorrow’s tendencies right this moment: learn extra, subscribe to our e-newsletter, and turn out to be a part of the NextTech neighborhood at NextTech-news.com
