MAM
Tourism New Zealand endorses Tourism 2025
MUMBAI: Tourism New Zealand says the industry has turned a corner with the release of ‘Tourism 2025 – Growing Value Together/Whakatipu Uara Ngatahi’ and its aspirational goal to reach $41b value by 2025.
Chief Executive Kevin Bowler says Tourism 2025 has brought the industry together and has forged a shared vision for where we want to get to and how with a collective focus, we can get there.
“Tourism New Zealand has agreed to align its business plan with the overall direction set out in Tourism 2025,” he says. “It is appropriate that this is a framework for alignment, rather than just a list of operational tactics, as there aren’t many silver bullets when it comes to achieving the growth we’re aspiring to achieve.”
“Instead, this framework is about helping the whole industry to all move in the same direction, targeting the areas with investment in time, energy and money that will deliver the greatest economic returns for the industry and of course the country.”
Kevin says that Tourism New Zealand’s work under its current three-year marketing strategy fits closely with the 2025 framework and the organisation is using its additional funding provided by the Government to drive actions across Tourism 2025’s five central themes.
“The Tourism 2025 theme ‘targeting for value’ is perfectly aligned with Tourism New Zealand’s objective to increase the value of international visitors to New Zealand,” he says.
“To help achieve this, we have increased our investment in international business events, premium visitor segments, and special interest travel sectors recognising these visitors typically spend more than the average holiday visitor.”
“We are working closely with airlines and airports to encourage growth in airline services to ‘grow sustainable air connectivity’, and have a number of joint venture partnerships in place, most significantly a $20 million per annum joint marketing agreement with Air New Zealand. Our involvement with the i-SITE network, Qualmark and the China market through the ADS and PKP programmes are our key contributions to the Tourism 2025 theme “drive value through outstanding visitor experience”.
“By identifying and attracting visitor segments that visit New Zealand in the shoulder and off seasons, particularly through our new focus on emerging markets like India and Indonesia, we are assisting the industry improve its performance under the theme “productivity for profit”.
“Finally, Tourism New Zealand has an entire team dedicated to providing research analysis and “insight” that is distributed to the industry on the tourismnewzealand.com website.”
Tourism New Zealand was a key contributor in the development of Tourism 2025 and supports the ambitious goal of raising the combined value of international and domestic tourism to $41 billion by 2025.
Digital
Content India 2026 opens with a copro pitch, a spice evangelist and a £10,000 prize for Indian storytelling
Dish TV and C21Media’s three-day summit puts seven ambitious projects before an international jury, and two walk away with serious development money
MUMBAI: India’s content industry gathered in Mumbai this March for Content India 2026, a three-day summit organised by Dish TV in partnership with C21Media, and it wasted no time making a statement. The event opened with a Copro Pitch that put seven scripted and unscripted television concepts before an international panel of judges, and by the end of it, two projects had walked away with £10,000 each in marketing prize money from C21Media to support development and international promotion.
The jury, comprising Frank Spotnitz, Fiona Campbell, Rashmi Bajpai, Bal Samra and Rachel Glaister, evaluated a shortlist that ranged from a dark Mumbai comedy-drama about mental health (Dirty Minds, created by Sundar Aaron) to a Delhi coming-of-age mystery (Djinn Patrol, by Neha Sharma and Kilian Irwin), a techno-thriller about a teenage gaming prodigy (Kanpur X Satori, by Suchita Bhatia), an investigative crime drama blending mythology and modern thriller (The Age of Kali, by Shivani Bhatija), a documentary on India’s spice heritage (The Masala Quest, hosted by Sarina Kamini), a documentary on competitive gaming (Respawn: India’s Esports Revolution, by George Mangala Thomas and Sangram Mawari), and a reality-horror competition merging gaming and immersive fear (Scary Goose, by Samar Iqbal).
The session was hosted by Mayank Shekhar.
The two winners were Djinn Patrol, backed by Miura Kite, formerly of Participant Media and known for Chinatown and Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey, with Jaya Entertainment, producers of Real Kashmir Football Club, also attached; and The Masala Quest, created and hosted by Sarina Kamini, an Indian-Australian cook, author and self-described “spice evangelist.”
The summit also unveiled the Content India Trends Report, whose findings made for bracing reading. Daoud Jackson, senior analyst at OMDIA, set the tone: “By 2030, online video in India will nearly double the revenue of traditional TV, becoming the main driver of growth.” He noted that in 2025, India produced a quarter of all YouTube videos globally, overtaking the United States, while Indians collectively spend 117 years daily on YouTube and 72 years on Instagram. Traditional subscription TV is declining as free TV and connected TV gain ground, forcing broadcasters to innovate. “AI-generated content is just 2 per cent of engagement,” Jackson added, “highlighting the dominance of high-quality human content. The key for Indian media companies is scaling while monetising effectively from day one.”
Hannah Walsh, principal analyst at Ampere Analysis, added hard numbers to the picture. India produced over 24,000 titles in January 2026 alone, with 19,000 available internationally. The country now accounts for 12 per cent of Asia-Pacific content spend, up from 8 per cent in 2021, outpacing both Japan and China. Key exporters include JioStar, Zee Entertainment, Sony India, Amazon and Netflix, delivering over 7,500 Indian-produced titles abroad each year. The top importing markets are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, the United States and the Philippines. Scripted content dominates globally at 88 per cent, with crime dramas and children’s and family titles performing particularly strongly.
Manoj Dobhal, chief executive and executive director of Dish TV India, framed the summit’s ambition squarely. “Stories don’t need translation. They need a platform, discovery, and reach, local or global,” he said. “India produces more movies than any country, our streaming platforms compete globally, and our tech and creators win international awards. Yet fragmentation slows growth. Producers, platforms, and tech move in different lanes. We need shared spaces, collaboration, and an ecosystem where ideas, technology, and people meet. That is why we built Content India.”
The data, the pitches and the prize money all pointed to the same conclusion: India is not waiting for the world to discover its stories. It is building the infrastructure to sell them.
