Tourism sector told to take up technology initiatives to make travel easier

The tourism industry is being urged to embrace technology and prepare for more "digital natives" to be arriving at New Zealand's doors in the future.

A new industry report suggests the visitor experience will be quite different in just five years' time with more "digital natives" - people who have grown up in the internet age.

Industry leaders discussed the future of their sector at Tourism Summit Aotearoa in Auckland on Wednesday.

Tourism Minister Matt Doocey wanted New Zealand to be viewed as a year-round destination and he wanted to see 70 percent of tourism growth occur off-peak.

In a video message, he talked about the government's work to develop a roadmap to explore how the industry could grow.

Earlier this year, Tourism New Zealand kicked off a campaign to attract more visitors between March and November outside of summer, aiming to grow tourism by $5 billion over the next four years.

Chief executive René de Monchy said they had not turned their back on the summer.

"Getting more people year-round is going to make it easier to employ people year-round, make business obviously more profitable, more sustainable during the year. It's also the most sustainable form of growth."

De Monchy wanted more travellers to find out about the many activities they could do throughout the year - including winter and the shoulder season.

Last year, the industry released its strategy to 2050 with plans to address underfunding, grow its workforce and become net carbon zero.

On Wednesday, the industry released a visitor experience report, showing there were big changes on the horizon in how people plan, book and engage on their future holidays.

It showed tomorrow's tourists would be younger, more digital-savvy and on the search for special experiences, but there would also be a large group of older, well-off retirees who wanted to travel.

Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Rebecca Ingram said they wanted to prioritise balanced growth.

"We have the opportunity and the plan to predict a great future by creating it," she said.

"We believe that with the right settings, tourism could be worth $55 billion per year by 2030, and we can deliver this in a sustainable and resilient way."

Frances Valintine from academyEX said using artificial intelligence could help to remove the pain points from organising a trip.

"My request is around where to go. We have a time period, the months of the year, the airlines I want to fly, the budget that I have, I want to stop in Dubai. I've asked all these questions in a single prompt," she said.

Within minutes, a complete itinerary was laid out.

Technology was here to make people's job easier, she said.

Air New Zealand's Jeremy O'Brien said there was a lot of new tech on its way including SkyNest, biometric boarding gates and digital bagtags.

"Sometimes, actually, you don't have to person-to-person interaction, particularly when it's a really mundane task like checking in. Actually, you just want to get through, out the other side," he said.

They were also working on a way to end the midnight munchies.

"We'll have a Sky Pantry. It will be fully stocked, you'll be able to go to it, eat when you want, as much as you want," O'Brien said.

Air New Zealand plans to trial wifi on domestic flights from next year.