New Zealand business tourism: Exploring the impact of economic policy uncertainties

Business tourism has brought significant benefits to New Zealand’s tourism industry and economy. This study aims to provide a better understanding of the impact of economic uncertainty on New Zealand’s business tourism. The panel data gravity model and the maximally correlated portfolio are used to investigate the impacts of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) indices of New Zealand and its key trading partners, along with tourism and aviation-related factors, on New Zealand’s business tourist flows from 2008 to 2015. The findings suggest that two economic factors (New Zealand’s EPU index and bilateral trade volumes) and two noneconomic factors (flying distance and total direct flight seats) are statistically significant in explaining some of the variations in business tourism flows. The results have important policy implications for New Zealand’s policymakers in understanding business visitor demands and planning their tourism strategies.