What's On in Marlborough Tourism: My Notes from the Destination Marlborough Industry Update
Apr 2026
Insights
Nigel Muir, the project lead for the Whale Trail, gave an update and it was really exciting to hear.
If you haven't been following it, the Whale Trail is a 200km cycling and walking trail being built along the northeast coast of the South Island, from Picton down to Kaikōura. It's been in the works since the 2016 earthquake. The idea being to turn this coastline into a destination people come specifically to experience, rather than just drive through on State Highway 1.
Right now about half the trail is done. A new 39km section between Seddon and Ward opened just a few weeks ago. They have six construction teams working on it and the goal is to eventually get it onto the Ngā Haerenga Great Rides list which would put it alongside some of the best cycle trails in the country!
For Marlborough, this is the kind of thing that gets people to stay longer, spend more, and come back. Multi-day trail experiences are really well understood as high-value tourism now. It's coming along nicely.
There was a timely update on New Zealand's fuel supply, specifically around what the Middle East conflict means for our stocks here.
At the time of the event, New Zealand was and still is in Phase 1 of the fuel disruption response plan, i.e watchful mode. But flights are already being cut. That's the part that matters most for tourism operators, because fewer flights in means fewer visitors through the door.
The MBIE page has the latest on where things stand and it's worth keeping an eye on.
There's growing interest in making Marlborough more attractive to visitors from China and Southeast Asia. Not a lot of detail shared on this yet, but the conversation is clearly happening.
I'm from Southeast Asia and spent nearly a decade in China, so I have some actual thoughts on what travellers from those markets want when they visit a region like this. Saving that for another post.
During one of the updates by the new marketing manager, I found out that a billboard campaign I did a while back with the previous Destination Marlborough marketing manager is still being used. The media company pulls it as a fallback when there's an empty slot in Christchurch, and it's now clocked over 159 hours of screen time.
Good design has a long tail. Love to see it!
I'm heading to another Destination Marlborough event in the coming days, this one focused on the Destination Management Plan. I'll write up what comes from that too.
