Welcome to Te Whanganui a Tara Wellington

Arrival and check-in at your hotel in Wellington (or drop off your bags).

Zealandia Site Visit

From 12:45pm, we ask that all delegates start making their way to either bus stop below. We will be catching the Number 2 public bus to Zealandia.

Delegate Meeting Spot for Copthorne Hotel: Courtenay Place Stop A – Stop 500  (near Sweet Mother’s Kitchen)
Delegate meeting spot for Oaks Hotel: Courtenay Place St James Theatre – Stop 5002

Look out for Jo Heaton and Chris Sperring from WellingtonNZ – they will be your ‘Bus Bassadors’ and will assist with ensuring  you catch the right bus. The bus leaves every 10 minutes but we will be departing 10-15 people at a time. Each bus will have someone with a Snapper card that will take care of payment.

The Zealandia stop is located here: Zealandia Chaytor Street (Appleton Park) – Stop 5320.  Look out for David Perks as he will be waiting for you to point you towards Zealandia.

Please ensure you bring warm clothing and that you are wearing your personalised lanyard. 

Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne Experience 

Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne is the world’s first fully-fenced urban ecosanctuary, with an extraordinary 500-year vision to restore the valley’s forest and freshwater ecosystems as closely as possible to pre-human state.

Set around a picturesque reservoir, Zealandia Te Māra a Tāne is home to some of New Zealand’s most rare and extraordinary wildlife – all thriving wild in a world-first protected sanctuary.

Upon arrival at Zealandia, tea and coffee and a light afternoon tea will be served.

The Zealandia Story

Zealandia’s Chief Executive Dr Danielle Shanahan discusses how Zealandia have wrapped sustainability, regeneration, tourism and community together.

Free time.

Prepare for evening Welcome Function.

Evening function dress code: Smart Casual.

Wānanga Tuatoru Welcome Function | Wharewaka Function Centre

Delegates to arrive at Wharewaka Function Centre for our evening welcome function.

There will be a cash bar available on arrival.

Welcome from Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau

Delegates will be welcomed to Wellington by Mayor Tory Whanau.

Welcome from John Allen

During the evening we will hear from our host city RTO, WellingtonNZ Chief Executive John Allen.

Speaker: Paul Retimanu, Managing Director Manaaki Management

Message from RTNZ

Delegates to arrive and be seated at Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand

Conference Space: Rangimarie Room 1 on Level 3.

Karakia & Waiata

The opportunity for you to practice your Te Reo and increase your confidence in cultural protocol and tikanga.

Welcome from RTNZ

David and Kiri will welcome you to wānanga tuatoru and provide an agenda overview for the day.

Message from Hon. Peeni Henare | Minister of Tourism

Redefining Our Role: Why We Are Essential, Necessary, And Very Important

Jack Johnson from Destinations International on the role of the modern destination organisations. By clearly articulating the role of a destination organisation in a community, Jack will provide the starting point for an organisation’s community-based mission, lay out the argument for public support of the organisation’s efforts, and identify the ideas and values that form the basis of the “community shared value” concept where the destination organisation is not only valued, but is viewed as essential and necessary in their community.

The Challenges and Opportunities for Local Government

In this session, Stuart will discuss the current operating environment for the Local Government sector including the government reforms that will impact on councils, the just released Future for Local Government report and the opportunities that could come from the reform of Local Government and the impact on Regional Tourism in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Working Effectively with Local Government

Scene Setting For Climate Change Sessions

Climate Change Introduction

Climate Change Adaptation

Representing The Aotearoa Circle, Jack will give an overview of the Tourism Sector Climate Scenarios, prepared for organisations to make their strategic and mandatory climate-related disclosures. Jack will then cover the Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap and it’s key actions, in addition to the next steps of implementation and the opportunity for engagement and collaboration.

Draft Tourism Environment Action Plan

Regenerative Tourism, Leading the Journey to Carbon Zero

Facilitated Discussion – Climate Change: What Does This Mean for Us?

David and Kiri will facilitate a discussion on what we have learnt from our climate change sessions and what this all means for us.

Low Season Travel

Ged Brown, founder and CEO of Low Season Traveller, joins us to discuss the trends that are driving uptake of low season travel, and provides practical examples of what destinations around the world are doing to create new low season offerings and attract visitors outside the peak.

Wrap up of Day Two 

David and Kiri will reflect on the presentations and sessions from the day and provide an overview of the evening and what to expect tomorrow. 

Tour of Tākina | Wellington’s Convention and Exhibition Centre

After wrapping up the day two programme, delegates will walk over to the recently opened Tākina Wellington Convention and Exhibition Centre.

This striking new building is the Capital’s largest built infrastructure investment since the Wellington Regional Stadium two decades ago. Tākina will offer event facilities across three floors and 18,000 sqm, drawing visitors to Wellington to learn, meet and be inspired.

With David as our guide, we will tour the facility and then hear about the goals & objectives and how this project is helping Wellington city deliver on the four wellbeing pillars.

Day Two Ends

Free Evening. The choice is yours.  You could choose to head to one of WellingtonNZ’s recommended restaurants, explore the city centre, or heading back to your hotel and relax.

Check out these suggestions from the WellingtonNZ team:

Click Here for Wellington Dinner Options

Delegates to arrive and be seated at Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand.

Please note the earlier start time. 

If you are departing Wellington today, please remember to check out of your hotel. You can bring your luggage to the conference venue.

Karakia

The opportunity for you to practice your Te Reo and increase your confidence in cultural protocol and tikanga.

Welcome to Day Three from RTNZ

David and Kiri will provide an overview of Day Three.

Failte Ireland: National Tourism Development Agency

In this session we will look at how tourism is organised/governed in Ireland including enabling legislation, sector budget provisions and mechanisms, the sector’s structures at a national, regional, local level and their roles and responsibilities. Failte Ireland’s structure, budget, key initiatives their work in sustainability, climate change, destination management and development.

Paul Kelly will be joining us live via Zoom.

Measuring What Matters: Global Indicators for Destinations

Tourism and Data Insights Work Programme

In this session, David Perks provides an update on the Tourism Data and Insights Work Programme.

Measuring What Matters: Workshop

Facilitated by Kiri and David and working in groups, we will look at what we are currently measuring in terms of regional performance and organisational performance. We will then discuss what additional elements we would want as part of our core data set. 

RTO Showcases

Session One: Product Development Audit | Destination Great Lake Taupō

As a crucial step in the initial stages of developing the Taupō Destination Management Plan, it was essential to gain a comprehensive understanding of the existing products available throughout the Taupō region. Identifying gaps in our tourism offering and recognising opportunities to enhance sector capabilities were the primary motivations behind conducting a thorough Product Audit of the region. This presentation will explore the approach taken by Destination Great Lake Taupō in carrying out this assessment and demonstrate how DGLT has utilised the resulting tool to drive new product development and strengthen operator capabilities.

Session Two: Civics Experience, Leveraging our Capital City Status | WellingtonNZ

In this session, Chris will talk us through the stages of the project and the steps to success.

Session Three: Labour & Talent | RotoruaNZ

RotoruaNZ has developed a Tourism and Hospitality Workforce Sector Development Plan aims to enhance the growth and sustainability of the tourism and hospitality workforce in the region, with a strong focus on our local community. A comprehensive workforce assessment was conducted in June 2022, skill gaps, training opportunities, and industry needs. Our presentation will today will take you on a journey of what has worked, what hasn’t, what might you replicate in your own context and hopefully leave you with some thought provoking questions about investing in and retaining talent for the betterment of Aotearoa.

Session Four: Tiaki Project | Hamilton & Waikato Tourism

Regenerative and Sustainable Tourism is one of Hamilton & Waikato Tourism’s guiding principles within Destination Management Plan. With this in mind, we have developed a pilot programme to integrate the Tiaki Promise into our communities to align with national initiatives.

This presentation will outline the aim of the programme, why we chose to focus on a single community, our journey so far, implementation and our key learnings along the way.

Session Five: Central Otago Leadership & Governance | Tourism Central Otago

Session Six: Cultural Competency & Responsibility | Venture Taranaki

Time for DMOcracy

Time for DMOcracy Workshop

Wrap-up, key take-aways and personal actions

Our final session for wānanga tuatoru. 

Reflect on your time together at Te Ūnga Mai with practical application of lessons and personal actions.

Closing karakia.

Afternoon tea will be served at the closing of this session.