Media Centre

Tourism drive attempts to hook big-spending overseas golfers
Tourism New Zealand is hoping to double the number of international tourists who come here to play golf as part of a new strategy to attract higher spending visitors.About 50,000 overseas visitors play golf while they're here and...

NZ missing boat on cruises: expert
A cruise industry consultant says New Zealand risks missing out on most of the boom in the sector by not giving passengers what they want.Wendy London, of Cruise Strategy, said tourist operators were not tailoring their offerings...

NZ exodus across the Tasman slows
The number of New Zealanders quitting this country for a better life across the Tasman slowed to its smallest monthly pace in almost three years, as the local economic prospects start overshadowing Australia's.Seasonally adjusted,...

Editorial: Push needed to hold mass appeal events
Sometimes it takes an outside eye to reveal the full extent of a change in circumstance. So it was with the report by Britain's SportBusiness Group which showed Auckland had overtaken Sydney as a host of premier sporting events in...

Emirates adds third A380 to NZ
Emirates is upgrading its services out of New Zealand by putting on a third superjumbo.From October the airline will use an A380 to fly the daily Auckland-Brisbane-Dubai service replacing the smaller Boeing 777-300.The addition...

Queenstown the world's 25th best destination - survey
Queenstown is the world's 25th best destination, according to TripAdvisor.The global travel website released its latest survey results yesterday.Queenstown was ranked first in New Zealand, second in the South Pacific and 25th...

Kia ora: Thames
Origin of name: When Captain Cook navigated his way up the Waihou River, he renamed it Thames after the English waterway. And, when Grahamstown and Shortland (two early-settler towns) met in the middle and became one, the settlement...

Visitors flocking to NZ in record numbers
Visitors flocked to New Zealand in record numbers last month, with Chinese tourists showing the biggest increase.Arrivals in April reached 200,600 - up 3 per cent from the same time last year and surpassing the previous record April...

New Zealand: Row, row, row your boat
Auckland is paradise for boaties. Pleasure boats, sailboats, motor boats, from one-person kayaks to 10-foot tinnies to 70-foot super yachts, there's a boat for every taste, and almost every budget. The Hutchwilco Boat Show prompted...

Kawakawa: The engine Gabriel
Most people passing through Kawakawa know it for its famous toilets, but it's also known as "train town" because of the Bay of Islands vintage railway track running right down the middle of the main street.We head to the station...

Key hearing for Air NZ on surcharges
Air New Zealand faces continued action over air freight surcharges in other countries as the long-running case brought by the Commerce Commission here reaches a key stage this week.The airline faces a penalty hearing in the High...