Taupō Came To Town: A Product Showcase

Friday, 7 November 2025, 5:27 pm
Press Release: Love Taupo

Taupō’s tourism industry came to town — united and ready to showcase a wide range of activities and accommodation to travel trade professionals in Auckland.

The annual Taupō Product Showcase — hosted by Destination Great Lake Taupō (DGLT) — brought 18 tourism businesses to Auckland to meet leading travel trade buyers and travel agents (frontline staff) on 5 November.

The travel showcase, held at Auckland’s Hilton Hotel, was a business to business event where the tourism businesses had the opportunity to promote their product to potential travel buyers, engage with travel media and network with other tourism professionals.

Participating businesses — representing tourism activities, tours, transport and accommodation — included two operators who are new to marketing fully trade commissionable products through travel sellers.

Géraldine Morisse — Travel Trade Executive at Destination Great Lake Taupō — said she was excited to be bringing some new product to market. These new products included hotel accommodation and tasting tours in a newly opened gin distillery.

The showcase’s main primary target was ITOs (inbound tour operators) — mainly product managers and travel consultants who are experts in selling New Zealand to their trade distribution partners (B2B) or directly to consumers (B2C), Morisse said. A total of 141 attendees registered, including Tourism New Zealand and iSite representatives and travel media.

“This showcase was a market, a trade show, a training opportunity and a networking opportunity all rolled into one,” Destination Great Lake Taupō General Manager Patrick Dault said.

“It’s all about creating passionate advocates for the Taupō region and our products. We believe that by growing product awareness and knowledge, we’re equipping travel sellers to better sell our region with the aim of increasing share of total visitor nights and continued growth of international visitor spend.”

“We ran an informal free-flow format. It’s a talk-fest that seeks to increase awareness of the variety of tourism products on sale in the Taupō region, to increase knowledge, ability and enthusiasm to sell Taupō. Ultimately we expect to see some worthwhile business opportunities come out of this occasion, if not on the day but as a result of making key connections.”

“Every showcase brings fresh insights and new connections,” Pacific Destinations Head of Product and Procurement Carol Adams said.

“We had an excellent afternoon connecting with operators, learning more about their products and discovering new experiences to share with our clients from around the world — each looking for something uniquely different to include in their customers’ itineraries.”

The afternoon programme concluded with a prize giving, drinks and canapes.

The operators who attended: 

• 5 Mile Distilling
• Adrift Tongariro
• AJ Hackett Taupō Bungy & Swing
• Backyard Tours
• Escape Aviation
• Hilton Hotels - North Island
• Hukafalls Jet
• Kinloch Manor & Villas
• Orakei Korako Geothermal Valley
• Quest Taupō
• Rapids Jet
• Suncourt Hotel
• Taupō Sailing Adventures
• Taupō Tandem Skydiving
• The Haka Shop Ltd
• Tongariro Expeditions
• Tongariro National Trout Centre
• Whakapapa Holdings 2024 Limited

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