New Zealand Tourism Gets a Hand from Hollywood

Every time director Peter Jackson releases a movie based on the classic books by author J.R.R. Tolkien, New Zealand tourism enjoys an uptick in traveler interest in the country. Such was the case when “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” was released in December 2012, and fans can still enjoy specialized tours and a behind-the-scenes look at the movie set locales today.

“It puts New Zealand in the conversation,” said Gregg Anderson, Tourism New Zealand’s Los Angeles-based general manager for North America. “What we found with the last movies is that as trailers start going into the theaters and we start promoting the association of New Zealand and Middle Earth, there’s more interest generated in tourism to the country.”

A visit to the Hobbiton movie set and farm, a Jeep tour of Mount Sunday and stops at several rural locations near Queenstown that exemplify Middle Earth are all available sites to see via tours offered by several companies.

And it’s not just land tours that get fans excited about New Zealand – thousands of visitors each year are discovering how beautiful the country is by ship. In recent years, a growing number of international cruise lines have stepped up to provide tours of the North and South Islands that often extend to Australia as well.