Tourism Sentiment Survey User guidance

TSS purpose and background

The Tourism Sentiment Survey (TSS) is a biannual online survey that measures New Zealanders’ perceptions of tourism and its impacts at national, regional and destination levels. The survey captures residents’ sentiment towards tourism overall, perceptions of tourism’s social, cultural, economic and environmental effects, and how New Zealanders engage with tourism.

The TSS is conducted after the summer and winter seasons, when visitor activity and its impacts are most visible. Using seasonal waves allows the survey to reflect experiences during these high-pressure periods, providing a clearer, region-specific snapshot than continuous data collection. Over time, these snapshots also build a consistent view of trends.

The survey is funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and conducted by Ipsos. It is designed to provide consistent and reliable insights to inform sustainable tourism decision making, particularly at regional and destination levels. It fills an information gap identified by both industry and government for a consistent tool that meets the needs of the tourism sector at a regional level.

Research method

TSS is conducted twice a year, following the summer and winter tourism seasons, with results released every six months. Each wave provides a snapshot of resident sentiment at that point in time, with results comparable across waves (subject to sampling variability and seasonality).

Each wave surveys up to 1,800 New Zealanders aged 18+, with a sample designed to be nationally representative and cover all 16 regions. Data are collected via an online panel, with targeted oversampling in smaller regions and high tourism destinations to support regional and sub-national analysis.

For the TSS, strict sample quotas were applied for age, gender, ethnicity, and region. More flexible regional quotas ensured balanced samples, avoiding skewed demographics (e.g. overrepresentation of one gender in a region). Other characteristics - such as urban/rural location, income, education, and length of time in New Zealand were monitored.

All findings were weighted by region, age, gender, and ethnicity in line with the 2023 NZ census population data. This means that the results align with the national adult population on these variables. While weighting improves representativeness, estimates for smaller regions or subgroups carry greater uncertainty. Statistically significant results are highlighted in the Ipsos report. Credibility intervals are available on request to support more in-depth interpretation.

Coverage

Results are available for all 16 regions, with more detailed analysis possible for selected high tourism areas where sample sizes are larger. Users should consider effective sample sizes and associated uncertainty measures, such as credibility intervals, before drawing conclusions for smaller areas.

Strengths and Limitations

TSS is statistically robust, run on a regular cycle, and purpose built to support regional insight. It provides timely, comparable data on tourism sentiment by region that was not previously available.

Key strengths include consistency over time, robust weighting, and enhanced regional coverage. Limitations include reliance on self reported perceptions, potential panel effects common to online surveys, and higher uncertainty for small sub populations. Results should be interpreted as perceptions, not direct measures of impact.

As with all surveys, results reflect perceptions at a point in time and are subject to sampling variability. Some smaller regions or sub groups may have wider margins of uncertainty, and results should be interpreted accordingly.

For Wave 1 of the Tourism Sentiment Survey (TSS), MBIE will make credibility intervals available on request and frame Wave 1 results as indicative. Annual reporting, which combines Wave 1 and Wave 2 results, is the preferred basis for interpretation. This approach is consistent with practice for rolling or multi wave surveys and reflects the intended use of early wave findings for directional insight rather than precise estimation.

Quality and privacy standards

Quality assurance was maintained through rigorous survey development, employing cognitive testing, piloting, strict processes, and data cleaning to eliminate low-quality responses, such as overly fast completions.

To protect participant confidentiality, all data is anonymised prior to analysis and securely stored in accordance with MBIE’s and Ipsos data management protocols and retention schedule. Data has been reported in aggregate to prevent re-identification.

Tourism Sentiment Survey Summer 2025/26

For more detail on Wave 1 methodology and fieldwork: