Latest news with #TaniaBurt
Scoop
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Savour Northland 2025 Launches First Events – A Month-Long Celebration Of Culinary Creativity
Savour Northland is back this October – and the first events are now live! From long, lazy lunches and unique wine tastings, to chorizo making workshops and exquisite feasts, Northland's signature food and beverage festival is set to return with flavour, flair and unmistakable regional pride. Now in its second year, Savour Northland 2025 will run from 1–31 October and feature a diverse, evolving lineup of events that hero the region's food, drink, landscapes and manaakitanga. Whether you're sipping wine by the sea, dining under the stars, or sampling Northland's finest produce, this year's programme invites you to savour Northland your way. Following a hugely successful debut in 2024—with 126 events and 49 entries into the Savour Northland Challenge—the festival once again celebrates local producers, chefs, venues, and artisans across all corners of the region. 'The 2024 response from industry and community exceeded all expectations,' says Jackie Sanders, Creative Director of Savour Northland. 'There's real momentum, innovation and pride in Northland's food scene, and 2025 will take that even further with fresh event formats, new collaborations, and some delicious surprises.' Northland Inc continues their major support of the event and are also confirmed as naming rights sponsor for the Savour Northland Challenge, which invites eateries to create the ultimate expression of Northland using local ingredients. Tania Burt, Head of Destination at Northland Inc says: "After the incredible energy of last year, we're thrilled to support the return of Savour Northland in October and give our producers, venues and communities another stage to shine. Savour Northland is fast becoming a drawcard for visitors who want to experience our kai, culture and creativity in an authentic way. This festival is a platform to tell our Northland food stories with pride, and Northland Inc is committed to walking alongside our food, beverage and producer industries so that they thrive, collaborate and continue growing stronger into the future." Northland Winegrowers also return as a Gold Sponsor, with their vineyards, winemakers and award-winning drops featured in many events across the month. 'Savour Northland puts our wines where they belong – front and centre,' says Peter Jones, Northland Winegrowers. 'This October, we look forward to welcoming guests to our cellar doors, joining our winemakers for tastings and pairings, and celebrating what makes Northland wine truly unique.' Over 25 venues have joined the first wave of the 2025 programme, with 40 unique events already confirmed across the region, from Mangawhai to Awanui. The key programme includes experiences on islands, vintage trains, catamarans and stunning gardens as well as in restaurants, bars, vineyards, theatres and luxury lodges. More events will be added in the coming weeks and the Northland Inc Savour Northland Challenge entries will be announced early September.
Scoop
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Savour Northland 2025 Launches First Events – A Month-Long Celebration Of Culinary Creativity
Savour Northland is back this October – and the first events are now live! From long, lazy lunches and unique wine tastings, to chorizo making workshops and exquisite feasts, Northland's signature food and beverage festival is set to return with flavour, flair and unmistakable regional pride. Now in its second year, Savour Northland 2025 will run from 1–31 October and feature a diverse, evolving lineup of events that hero the region's food, drink, landscapes and manaakitanga. Whether you're sipping wine by the sea, dining under the stars, or sampling Northland's finest produce, this year's programme invites you to savour Northland your way. Following a hugely successful debut in 2024—with 126 events and 49 entries into the Savour Northland Challenge—the festival once again celebrates local producers, chefs, venues, and artisans across all corners of the region. 'The 2024 response from industry and community exceeded all expectations,' says Jackie Sanders, Creative Director of Savour Northland. 'There's real momentum, innovation and pride in Northland's food scene, and 2025 will take that even further with fresh event formats, new collaborations, and some delicious surprises.' Northland Inc continues their major support of the event and are also confirmed as naming rights sponsor for the Savour Northland Challenge, which invites eateries to create the ultimate expression of Northland using local ingredients. Tania Burt, Head of Destination at Northland Inc says: "After the incredible energy of last year, we're thrilled to support the return of Savour Northland in October and give our producers, venues and communities another stage to shine. Savour Northland is fast becoming a drawcard for visitors who want to experience our kai, culture and creativity in an authentic way. This festival is a platform to tell our Northland food stories with pride, and Northland Inc is committed to walking alongside our food, beverage and producer industries so that they thrive, collaborate and continue growing stronger into the future." Northland Winegrowers also return as a Gold Sponsor, with their vineyards, winemakers and award-winning drops featured in many events across the month. 'Savour Northland puts our wines where they belong – front and centre,' says Peter Jones, Northland Winegrowers. 'This October, we look forward to welcoming guests to our cellar doors, joining our winemakers for tastings and pairings, and celebrating what makes Northland wine truly unique.' Over 25 venues have joined the first wave of the 2025 programme, with 40 unique events already confirmed across the region, from Mangawhai to Awanui. The key programme includes experiences on islands, vintage trains, catamarans and stunning gardens as well as in restaurants, bars, vineyards, theatres and luxury lodges. More events will be added in the coming weeks and the Northland Inc Savour Northland Challenge entries will be announced early September.
RNZ News
05-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Collaboration key to showcasing North Island tourism destinations
Overseas tourists only account for 20-30 percent of visitors to Northland. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf North Island regions hope a new collaboration will encourage more tourists to explore, stay longer and spend more. Three airports and 15 North Island regional tourism organisations have banded together to share resources as part of a new Memorandum of Understanding. The partnership was officially signed at the Auckland Airport Tourism Forum in Rotorua on Monday. Most of Northland's visitors are domestic, with overseas tourists only accounting for 20-30 percent of visitors, but Northland Inc. head of destination Tania Burt hoped that would change by working with other tourism leaders. "There's really no reason why we should get more international visitors, so to collaborate with our friends at Auckland Airport and other regions as well, who have strong international visitation, will boost the visibility of Northland." Burt wanted to see more tourists in Northland year-round, so businesses had more consistency, but promoting a region wasn't easy, when tourism funding was often tight and only getting tighter. She was pleased the different regions would share their insights and marketing to promote the North Island as a destination. "When it comes to international marketing, you have to be really smart about where you invest, because people don't have spare marketing dollars lying around. Regional tourism organisation, businesses, even Tourism New Zealand are under constraints." Collaborating was a way to showcase the regions better and create the positive change they wanted, she said. The potential for the North Island was huge. "One thing we like to work by is, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together, so it's time for the North Island to go and Northland has to be part of that." The partnership will initially focus on three key visitor markets - Australia, the US and China. Later this year, more than 60 tourism operators will meet with Australian travel sellers across the ditch at a North Island showcase. RotoruaNZ chief executive Andrew Wilson said competing against other overseas destinations for visitors was hard. "When you go in to a marketplace like Australia, where we're traditionally gone in all independently, we're all fighting for a voice and time with those buyers. Going in collectively, we've got more scale. "We've got more ability basically to encourage those buyers through the door." The North Island had a lot of room to grow and the partnership aligned well with the government's push for more tourist boots on the ground, he said. They would save time and money at a time when belts were tightening. "We've all got to continue to focus in terms of how we do more with less and this is definitely a really strong option in terms of how we do that." TRENZ - the country's largest tourism business event - kicks off in Rotorua on Tuesday. Rotorua was already buzzing before the event, which was last held in there in 2019. Wilson said people would be hard pressed to find an available room in town this week, because hotel bookings were so strong, and other businesses were also benefiting from events and more visitors to the area. "There's a huge amount of business done at TRENZ, which will have an impact obviously for the next three, four, five years in terms of how some of those itineraries are put together." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
