With Mat Woods, Chief Executive, Destination Queenstown, New Zealand
Queenstown, New Zealand has been known for its pioneering spirit and world’s firsts from bungie jumping and commercial jet boating to tandem sky diving and paragliding. Now Queenstown is leading the way in regenerative tourism, with the goal of ensuring tourism is regenerative and resilient, delivering benefits environmentally, socially, culturally and economically, enriching the lives of the people who live here and the people who visit. Queenstown developed its destination management plan “Travel to a Thriving Future” over the pandemic years, through extensive engagement with its community and creating the audacious goal of a carbon zero visitor economy by 2030, for everyone to rally around.