How NZ Tourism Operators Get Recommended by ChatGPT and Google AI (2026)

Last checked: 10 October 2026.

"Increasingly, travellers will not start with the destination. Instead, they will start with the prompt." That was Air New Zealand's chief executive, Nikhil Ravishankar, at TRENZ in Auckland in June 2026, and he was not alone. Tourism New Zealand's chief executive said the country has "a massive opportunity as a destination to make sure we are discovered." In July the Government put NZ$800,000 of International Visitor Levy money into making Tourism New Zealand's systems usable by AI tools. Minister Louise Upston put the problem plainly: "some of New Zealand's amazing tourism operators are harder to find through AI than they should be."

This guide is for the owner of a small tour, activity, or cellar door business who wants to be one of the operators an AI assistant names when a traveller asks "best kayak tour in the Abel Tasman" or "where to see penguins near Dunedin". It covers what is actually changing, what Tourism New Zealand itself recommends, and the steps that matter, in order.

The short answer. AI assistants name the businesses whose facts they can find, read, and confirm across several sources. For a New Zealand operator that means four things: a website that states plainly what you do, where, when, and for how much, in text rather than images or PDFs; a complete and current newzealand.com listing; a Google Business Profile that matches it; and consistent details across your booking platforms and regional tourism listing. Nobody can guarantee a placement in ChatGPT, and anyone who promises one is guessing. What you can do is remove the reasons you are left out.

How many travellers actually plan with AI

Enough to matter, not yet a majority of bookings. Tourism New Zealand's July 2026 industry workshops cited research that 62 percent of travellers in its key markets are likely to use AI to plan their next trip, and 53 percent expect to use it more. Tourism Industry Aotearoa's chief executive, citing Phocuswright, said over half of US travellers now use AI to inform booking decisions. Expedia's March 2026 survey of more than 5,700 travellers in the US, UK and India found 40 percent use AI to help build itineraries, though only 8 percent rely mainly on AI chatbots, against 59 percent for search engines.

Read together: AI has become a common first step in planning, search engines and booking platforms still close most bookings, and the traveller who asks an AI for three kayak operators will usually then look at those three. Being on that short list is the prize.

What the Government and Tourism New Zealand are doing

On 30 July 2026, MBIE announced NZ$800,000 from the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy to upgrade Tourism New Zealand's systems and content so AI tools can access and use it, and to extend Tourism New Zealand's own AI travel assistant with regional tourism content. The Minister described part of it as making Tourism New Zealand's database "AI-ready".

For an operator the practical reading is simple: the information Tourism New Zealand holds about your business is about to be read by more machines, more often. If that information is thin or out of date, the machines will repeat it.

Tourism New Zealand also ran AI discoverability workshops for industry in July 2026 and published an Operator AI Playbook. The advice is sensible and unglamorous:

• Treat your website as the source of truth. Everything else should match it.
• Keep the same facts everywhere. Business name, region, type of experience, and booking details should be identical across your website, newzealand.com, your regional tourism listing, Google Business Profile, and booking platforms. Tourism New Zealand's Bjoern Spreitzer described the goal as being "discoverable both by humans and machines."
• Put information in the page, not in PDFs. A price list in a PDF or a timetable in an image is invisible to most AI tools.
• Add plain language answers to real questions. What to bring, how long it takes, minimum age, what happens if the weather turns.
• State trust signals as text. "Qualmark Gold" written on the page counts; a logo image alone may not.
• Update the homepage and the two to four pages that drive bookings first, and check them every 90 days.

When we audited 80 small New Zealand tourism websites in October 2026, every one let AI crawlers in, but 53 percent of their pages carried no structured data and half the sites had pages nothing linked to. The full results are in our study of 80 NZ tourism websites.

The steps, in order

1. Fix your homepage first

It is the page AI tools and travellers both read first. In the first screen on a phone it should say what the experience is, where it starts, how long it takes, what it costs, and how to book. If those five facts are buried, or sit inside an image, an assistant summarising your business has to guess, and it will usually choose a competitor whose page does not make it guess. Our tourism website checklist covers the rest of the page.

2. Complete your newzealand.com listing

The Tourism Business Database is free. Sign up at register.newzealand.com, build a business profile, then a product listing for each experience. Tourism New Zealand's own tips: add a booking URL so the listing shows a "Book Now" button; use three to eight images about 1,080 pixels wide; add your Tripadvisor ID; put the most relevant tag first; and review the listing at least once every 12 months or it stops showing. Listings on newzealand.com are ordered by Qualmark rating by default, which is one of the things to weigh in whether Qualmark is worth the fee.

3. Match your Google Business Profile

Same name, same address or meeting point, same hours, same booking link, same category. Google's AI answers draw heavily on Google's own listings and reviews.

4. Connect Google Things to do

Google lists tours and activities for free through Things to do when your booking system is a connectivity partner. On Google's partner list we checked, Rezdy and FareHarbor are included; Bookeo and Checkfront were not. It puts your own booking option in front of travellers next to the platforms, and it gives Google structured, current data about your prices and availability.

5. Answer the questions travellers actually ask

Write a short FAQ on your site in plain sentences: is it suitable for children, what if it rains, where do I park, do I need to be fit, can I bring a camera. These are the questions people type into an AI, and an answer written on your page is one the AI can quote.

6. Add structured data that matches the page

Structured data (schema.org markup) helps search engines read your business details. Google's rich results support LocalBusiness, Event, Product and review types; there is no special "tour" rich result. Tourism New Zealand's playbook makes the important point: structured data should match what is visible on the page. Markup that says one price while the page says another does more harm than none.

7. Check what the assistants say, then check again

Ask ChatGPT, Google, and Perplexity the questions a traveller would ask about your region and activity. Note who is named and what is said about you. Repeat every few months. If an assistant gets a fact about you wrong, the fix is almost always to correct that fact at its source: your website, your newzealand.com listing, or your Google profile.

What not to buy

There are now agencies and coaches selling "AI visibility" to tourism operators, some at five figure prices. Before paying, ask what exactly they will change, on which pages and listings, and how you will check the result. Be wary of anyone who guarantees placement in ChatGPT, because no one controls it. Most of the work above is free or close to it if you have the time; the cost is the time.

If you do not have the time, our NZ$1,490 rebuild covers the full website, structured data, FAQ, and the newzealand.com and Google listing checklist, at a published price. If you are deciding where to spend first, our breakdown of what Viator and GetYourGuide actually charge shows what each lost direct booking costs.

Frequently asked questions

Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?

No. ChatGPT, Google's AI answers, and Perplexity do not sell placement in their recommendations. You can only make your business easier to find, read, and confirm.

What is the Government's NZ$800,000 AI tourism investment?

Announced by MBIE on 30 July 2026, it uses International Visitor Levy funding to upgrade Tourism New Zealand's systems and content so AI tools can use them, and to extend Tourism New Zealand's AI travel assistant with regional content.

Does my newzealand.com listing affect AI answers?

Tourism New Zealand's systems are being upgraded specifically so AI tools can read them, and its advice is to keep your listing consistent with your website. An accurate, complete listing is one of the cheapest steps you can take, and it is free.

Do I need structured data on my website?

It helps, but it is not the first step. A homepage that states your experience, location, duration, price and booking link in plain text matters more. If you add structured data, it must match what the page shows.

How do I know if AI assistants mention my business?

Ask them. Use the questions a traveller would ask about your region and activity in ChatGPT, Google, and Perplexity, and record who is named. Repeat every few months, because the answers change.

Sources

• TTG Asia, New Zealand tourism sector adapts to AI driven travel planning (TRENZ 2026), 2 June 2026.
• MBIE, Using AI to improve New Zealand tourism visibility, 30 July 2026.
• Inside Government NZ, Minister Upston on AI tourism investment, 29 July 2026; AccomNews, 29 July 2026.
• Tourism New Zealand, TNZ hosts AI discoverability workshops for industry, July 2026.
• Tourism New Zealand, Operator AI Playbook V1.0.
• Tourism New Zealand, Tourism Business Database help centre and listing top tips.
• Expedia Group and YouGov traveller survey, March 2026, via Hospitality Net.
• Google Search Central, structured data search gallery, updated 15 June 2026; Google, Things to do connectivity partners, checked 10 October 2026.