It’s Wednesday, rate decision day, and the most interesting map in the country this week is Christchurch Airport’s departures board. Here’s what’s moving.
Christchurch gets Sydney, Perth and Singapore in three days
Jetstar resumed its Christchurch to Sydney service on Monday, and last night its first direct flight from Perth landed in Christchurch, the airport said. The Perth route runs three times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and adds more than 37,000 seats between the two cities over summer. Today Air New Zealand starts its own three-weekly Christchurch to Singapore service, with Tokyo Narita following on 28 November and Perth on 30 November. The Herald reported that Air New Zealand’s three new routes together add more than 92,000 seats to the airport’s international network.
The timing of the Perth flight matters as much as the route. It arrives in the evening, so a Western Australian visitor wakes up in the South Island with a full day ahead rather than a connection through Auckland or the east coast of Australia behind them. Perth also connects on to Qantas group services to London, Johannesburg, Delhi and Rome, which gives Christchurch travellers a one-stop option into Europe, Africa and India by a new way round.
The capacity is spread across both carrier types. Jetstar is selling low fares and visiting friends and family, while Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines, which flies daily and adds three extra services a week over summer, are selling connections into Asia and Europe. On 22 November alone there will be three Singapore departures from Christchurch and 1,560 seats on the route that day. The question for the South Island is not whether the seats arrive, but whether they are still flying once summer ends; Air New Zealand’s Tokyo and Perth services run into May.
Stat of the day
37,000+
Seats Jetstar's new three-weekly Perth to Christchurch route adds between the two cities over summer, before Air New Zealand puts its own Perth service on at the end of November. (Christchurch Airport)
Source: Christchurch Airport, NZ Herald
Hospitality NZ and the Restaurant Association are studying a merger
Hospitality New Zealand and the Restaurant Association are investigating whether to amalgamate into a single national body, Hospitality NZ told members in a statement dated 22 October. A joint steering group appointed by both boards, chaired independently by Tim Gibson, will work through the benefits, risks and options, with the feasibility work due by mid-2027. The exploration has MBIE’s support. Both associations say it is business as usual for members in the meantime.
The most telling line is the reason given. The statement says continuing as two separate organisations is becoming “increasingly challenging and unsustainable over the long term”. That is an unusually frank thing for an industry body to say about itself, and it comes from a sector whose members are under real cost pressure and weighing every subscription they pay. The two already lobby the same agencies on the same issues, from immigration settings to compliance costs.
The hard part will be breadth. A merged body would speak for independent cafés, multi-site restaurant groups, bars and accommodation providers at once, and the Restaurant & Café trade magazine noted that their priorities do not always line up. Whether one voice is louder than two depends on whether smaller operators still feel heard in it.
Source: Hospitality New Zealand, Restaurant & Café
Marlborough books a third more cruise passengers while the national market shrinks
Port Marlborough expects 32 cruise calls and 73,000 passengers this season, up 33 percent on the 24 calls it completed last season, Marlborough Now reported. The season started on Saturday with the arrival of Celebrity Solstice. That runs against a national decline, with port bookings reported down 40 percent in 2025/26 and a further fall forecast for 2026/27. The cruise industry has blamed high port fees, compliance costs and regulatory complexity for lines favouring easier destinations.
Chief executive Rhys Welbourn said the port has worked directly with cruise lines alongside Destination Marlborough, added a new tug and gangways, and given lines more certainty on port pricing for the next few years. The pricing point is the one other ports will notice, because certainty is what an itinerary planner booking two years out needs. Marlborough is still well behind Dunedin’s 85 scheduled calls, Fiordland’s 75 and Lyttelton’s 58, and bookings are expected to ease again in 2027/28 before improving. The cut to the border levy for arriving cruise passengers, from $27.14 to $7.20 from July 2027, arrives just as that dip does.
Source: Marlborough Now
A Hawke’s Bay vineyard wins a global wine tourism title on home soil
Black Barn Vineyards has been named the Hawke’s Bay global winner in the 2027 International Best Of Wine Tourism Awards, announced at the Great Wine Capitals Global Network’s conference gala, the first held in Hawke’s Bay, The Shout NZ reported. The award puts it alongside winners from Bordeaux, Napa Valley, Porto, Mendoza and the network’s other member regions. Black Barn won three categories at the regional awards in September: accommodation, architecture and landscape, and art and culture.
What the judges rewarded is breadth. Black Barn combines vineyard accommodation, a restaurant, a 2,000-seat amphitheatre set into a vineyard slope and a growers market, which makes it a destination rather than a cellar door. The other Hawke’s Bay category winners show the same pattern across very different businesses: Craggy Range for culinary experiences, Smith & Sheth for innovation, Electric Executive for sustainability and Tākaro Trails Cycle Tours for wine tourism services. Hosting a five-day conference for the network’s delegates is itself the larger prize, because those delegates are the people who shape wine travel itineraries in their own regions.
Source: The Shout NZ
The Reserve Bank decides at 2pm, and a rise would be its first during a campaign since 2014
Economists expect the Reserve Bank to lift the Official Cash Rate by 25 basis points at 2pm today, leaning against inflation pushed up by fuel prices, RNZ reported. Infometrics’ Gareth Kiernan said the last time it changed the rate during an election campaign was a 25 basis point rise in July 2014. The difference this time, he said, is that the result of the 7 November election is far from clear.
Westpac chief economist Kelly Eckhold made a point that will land with visitor businesses. Growth over the past year was 2.6 percent, above trend, but it has come from sectors such as tourism and agriculture that many households do not touch directly, which is why people struggle to see why rates are rising. For operators that is a mixed message: their sector is part of the reason the Bank thinks the economy can bear a higher rate, and they pay that rate on their debt.
Source: RNZ
Coming up
- 28 October: Reserve Bank OCR decision at 2pm, and Air New Zealand’s first Christchurch to Singapore service
- 1 November: Backcountry Hut Tickets move to DOC’s online booking system
- 4 November: Tourism Summit Aotearoa and the NZ Tourism Awards, Te Pae Christchurch
- 7 November: General election
- 14 November: Contractors start on the Hahei Beach Short Walk reroute
- 22 November: Three Singapore services in a day at Christchurch, 1,560 seats on the route
- 28 November: Air New Zealand’s first Christchurch to Tokyo Narita service
- 30 November: Air New Zealand’s first Christchurch to Perth service
- 1 December: Paid parking starts at Cornwall Park, Auckland
- Mid-2027: Feasibility work on a Hospitality NZ and Restaurant Association amalgamation due
- 1 July 2027: New Border Processing Levy rates take effect, with arriving cruise passengers paying $7.20
That's today's briefing. The Shoulder Season is back every weekday morning.