Overseas visitors set a September record while New Zealanders keep cutting back on eating out
September arrivals beat 2019 for the first time in the month, Air New Zealand adds seats to Taipei and Houston rather than new routes, card data shows domestic hospitality spending falling for a third month, Kāpiti Coast Airport gets a closing date, and 27 November becomes a two-strike day.
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Thursday 12 November 2026
Wānaka gets its first big hotel since 1986, and the experts watching Franz Josef's river say the plan is falling behind
A 136-room Sudima anchors a $180m resort at the foot of Mount Iron, Queenstown and Wānaka's tourism chief heads to California, Franz Josef's riverbed keeps rising faster than the fix, Starlux files a Taipei to Auckland schedule, and Curio Bay's campground still has no operator for summer.
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Operator profile · Wednesday 11 November 2026
Napier Port handles less cargo than it did in 2021 and earns 44 percent more for it
Hawke's Bay's listed port has spent four years pricing each container and tonne harder rather than chasing volume. Its audited accounts show how far that goes, why its cruise trade is shrinking anyway, and where the yield story runs out.
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Wednesday 11 November 2026
Auckland Airport's fire crews give notice of two 24-hour strikes, and Kāpiti's owners must close the airport to complete a sale
The 69 people Auckland Airport cannot legally fly without plan to walk out on 24 and 27 November, Kāpiti Coast Airport's sale hinges on shutting it, a coroner tells outdoor operators that a forecast is not a decision, and Auckland's kauri rate has reopened 109 tracks.
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Tuesday 10 November 2026
thl expects the end of its Glowworm Cave lease to halve its tourism profits, and Air Niugini is licensed a week before its Auckland return
The lease on New Zealand's best-known cave attraction runs out in June 2027 and the hapū that owns it is in no hurry to renew, Air Niugini clears its last hurdle before flying to Auckland, the Whale Trail gets money to reach the Picton ferries, and SH82 loses its last century-old bridge.
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Monday 9 November 2026
A knife-edge count parks the bed levy question until 27 November at the earliest, and thl's bidders go quiet on price
Saturday's election leaves a caretaker government and no answer on who would let councils charge visitors, both bidders for Tourism Holdings have lodged revised offers the board will not price in public, and Wairere Falls is open again after 16 months.
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Friday 6 November 2026
MBIE quietly pauses its regional tourism spend estimates, the week a $25m regional claim wins a national award
The official monthly gauge of how much visitors spend in each region has stopped while its method is reworked, Hamilton Airport pays its councils a record $1 million after its first clean profit since 2019, Supercars locks in two May weekends for 2027, and October ran warm across the South Island.
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