The restructuring of New Zealand's Regional Tourism Organisations

This Regional Spotlight focuses on the recent change in the structure of Regional Tourism Organisations (RTO) in New Zealand. Many of these destination marketing organisations (DMO) have recently been subsumed into broader Economic Development Agencies (EDA). The current shift represents the third stage in the evolution of destination marketing for New Zealand's tourism regions. The current developments in New Zealand have potential implications for destination marketers in other parts of the world. In a relatively rare practitioner/academic collaboration, the authors warn of the potential negative consequences of destination marketing being subsumed into a broader economic development mandate driven by the convergence of external forces. The primary driving force has been government austerity measures and rationalisation in an era of economic uncertainty and escalating costs of essential services provision. The contribution of this analysis is to add to the prosaic of accounts of tourism destination governance changes during times of economic austerity. While more research is required about modelling DMO governance effectiveness, the changes in New Zealand reflect one piece of this complex puzzle.