Queenstown

One of New Zealand’s most iconic destinations, has long been celebrated for its alpine landscapes, adventure tourism, and vibrant visitor economy. Yet behind its global reputation lies a growing challenge faced by many world-renowned destinations, balancing economic reliance on tourism with environmental limits, community wellbeing, and long-term resilience.

Over the past decade, Queenstown has experienced rapid growth in visitor numbers, placing increasing pressure on local infrastructure, housing availability, transport networks, and natural ecosystems. Tourism has become both the backbone of the local economy and a source of vulnerability. Seasonal peaks stretch public services, short-term accommodation reduces housing options for workers, and congestion impacts residents’ quality of life. The COVID-19 pandemic further exposed the risks of heavy economic dependence on tourism, triggering job losses and highlighting the need for diversification and smarter destination management.

In response, Queenstown has embarked on a bold shift in how it approaches tourism.

A Regenerative Vision for the Future

Rather than pursuing growth at any cost, Queenstown Lakes District has embraced a regenerative tourism approach through its long-term destination management strategy, often described as Travel to a Thriving Future. This strategy moves beyond traditional sustainability, aiming not only to reduce harm but to actively improve environmental, social, cultural and economic outcomes.

Key priorities include protecting fragile ecosystems, reducing carbon emissions, strengthening community wellbeing, supporting local businesses, and attracting visitors who contribute positively to the destination. Central to this vision is the idea that tourism should enhance Queenstown as a place to live, not just a place to visit.

A central pillar of Queenstown’s regenerative vision is its commitment to becoming a carbon zero destination by 2030. This goal recognises that tourism-related emissions, particularly from transport, energy use and infrastructure, represent one of the region’s most significant environmental challenges. Rather than relying solely on carbon offsetting, Queenstown’s approach focuses on reducing emissions at the source through smarter transport planning, renewable energy adoption, waste reduction, and encouraging low-impact visitor behaviour.

Achieving carbon zero is seen not only as an environmental responsibility, but as a long-term economic and social strategy that protects the natural landscapes Queenstown depends on, strengthens community resilience, and positions the destination as a global leader in regenerative tourism.

Data, technology, and visitor education are increasingly seen as essential tools in achieving this transformation. Understanding visitor flows, encouraging off-peak travel, improving access to information, and helping travellers make more conscious decisions are all critical elements of Queenstown’s regeneration journey.

It is within this context that a new tourism technology initiative, Smart Planner, has chosen Queenstown as its launch and pilot destination.

Smart Planner: Technology Designed for Regenerative Tourism

Smart Planner is a tourism technology project currently in development that aims to rethink how people plan, experience and understand travel. Rather than focusing solely on bookings, price comparison, or popularity rankings, the platform is being designed to support meaningful, low-impact and community-centred travel.

The project will offer an AI-powered itinerary planner and travel assistant that helps travellers build personalised trips based on preferences, time, location, accessibility, sustainability and impact. Beyond logistics, Smart Planner places strong emphasis on education, providing travellers with curated content about local culture, customs, nature, and community initiatives.

A defining feature of the platform is its focus on transparency and impact. Travellers will be able to see the carbon footprint of their itinerary, understand how eco-friendly their choices are through a sustainability score, and measure how much they are contributing to local communities and conservation through a contribution score. Tourism operators and services will be rated not only on experience quality, but also on environmental and accessibility performance.

In parallel, Smart Planner is being designed to aggregate tourism data and insights that can support operators, communities and destination managers in making better-informed decisions.

Why Queenstown Was Chosen as the Pilot Destination

Smart Planner’s decision to launch and pilot the platform in Queenstown is intentional.

Queenstown represents both the challenges and the opportunities facing modern tourism destinations. Its clear regenerative vision, strong community dialogue, and willingness to rethink tourism make it an ideal environment to test and refine a technology-led approach to destination management.

The Smart Planner project aligns closely with Queenstown’s goals of shifting from high-volume tourism to high-contribution tourism, dispersing visitor pressure, supporting local communities, and encouraging longer, more meaningful stays. By piloting the platform in Queenstown, the project aims to actively contribute to the region’s regenerative objectives rather than operate as a standalone commercial product.

The pilot phase will focus on demonstrating how digital tools and artificial intelligence can support better visitor behaviour, improve awareness of impact, and provide data-driven insights that benefit both travellers and the destination.

A Shared Direction for the Future of Tourism

Queenstown’s regeneration journey reflects a broader global shift in how destinations think about tourism. As climate change, biodiversity loss and social pressures intensify, destinations are increasingly seeking solutions that balance economic benefits with environmental and community wellbeing.

Smart Planner positions itself as part of this shift, using technology not to accelerate tourism growth, but to help manage it responsibly. By choosing Queenstown as its launch destination, the project signals a commitment to working alongside communities and destinations that are actively shaping a more resilient and regenerative tourism future.

As Queenstown continues to redefine what success looks like for tourism, initiatives like Smart Planner highlight how innovation, data and values-driven design can play a meaningful role in supporting destinations at a critical turning point.