Acknowledgments

Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini. 
My success is not that of an individual, but that of the collective. 

This work has been developed in collaboration with Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage’s Crown-funded entities. Project partners currently participating in the Te Kāpehu work programme include: 

• The Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa (Creative New Zealand) 
• Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga 
• Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision 
• NZ On Air Irirangi Te Motu 
• New Zealand Film Commission Te Tumu Whakaata Taonga 
• New Zealand Music Commission Te Reo Reka o Aotearoa 
• Royal New Zealand Ballet 
• Sport New Zealand Ihi Aotearoa 
• Te Matatini Society Incorporated 
• Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

Key insights

New Zealand’s cultural system plays an important role in advancing New Zealand’s relationships with the global community, generating broad value across a range of outcomes. This includes facilitating collaboration and partnership through cultural diplomacy and foreign investment, growing New Zealand’s brand and international reputation, and creating opportunities for tourism, trade and cultural exchange. Though existing evidence indicates impact at a high level and potential for growth, more research is needed to understand the value created in this area in more depth, including return on investment for specific interventions or initiatives.

1. New Zealand currently ranks 25th for media and communication and 30th for culture and heritage on the Global Soft Power Index. 
2. New Zealand’s cultural system is empowered by global cooperation, co-productions and foreign investment. 
3. Creative exports were New Zealand’s fourth largest commodity in 2023, generating almost NZ$3.8 billion. 
4. There is strong demand for New Zealand’s unique culture and heritage, with $2.3 billion in tourism spending linked to cultural activities in 2024.

For quick statistics, see the one-page overview:

Evidence at a Glance: Global Connections (PDF, 625KB)

About this evidence brief

This evidence brief is the second in a new series of reports synthesising data and evidence by the areas of inquiry within Te Kāpehu – The Compass, Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage’s cultural system evidence framework (published July 2025), developed in partnership with the Ministry’s Crown-funded entities.

Te Kāpehu – The Compass: a cultural system evidence framework

Read the first evidence brief: Economy Te Ōhanga – Understanding the economic value of New Zealand’s cultural system

With a focus on the arts, heritage, media and sport and recreation sectors, these briefs look across New Zealand’s complex and dynamic cultural system to highlight robust, trustworthy evidence and share key insights that can be used by a range of audiences to support decision-making, policy development, and strategic planning. 

These evidence briefs support the Ministry’s broader work programme to strengthen the cultural system evidence base, as signalled in Amplify: A Creative and Cultural Strategy for New Zealand 2025–2030.

Amplify Strategic pillar: Investing for maximum impact 
Maximising value for New Zealand from the creative and cultural sectors through Government investment.

Action 1.5—Develop a research programme to strengthen the evidence base for the creative and cultural sectors, to ensure funding and policy decisions are well-informed and demonstrate the sector’s value to decision-makers

This evidence brief focuses on the cultural system’s contribution to New Zealand’s global connections. The findings are limited by the evidence available. In preparing this report, the Ministry heard about many examples of initiatives and activities particularly relating to Māori leadership, cultural diplomacy, and knowledge and skills exchanges, which have been recently completed or are currently underway. It is likely that these activities are contributing to a range of positive outcomes, however detailed evidence is not yet available.

What is the ‘cultural system’?

There is no universal definition of the cultural and creative sectors. Each country has its own definition and produces different types of statistics relating to cultural participation, cultural and creative employment, and other factors. (OECD 2022, p. 22) 

For the purposes of Te Kāpehu, the ‘cultural system’ refers to the diverse cultural and creative sectors, industries and producers that contribute to cultural activity within New Zealand. Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage’s broad portfolio of responsibilities includes the arts, culture, heritage, media and sport and recreation sectors. Following the example of how international jurisdictions like Canada represent cultural statistics (Government of Canada, n.d.), as seen in the Ministry’s Annual Report 2024/25 (Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 2025a) and Long-term Insights Briefing 2025 (Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 2025b), all of these sectors are included when presenting insights about New Zealand’s cultural system as a whole.

Global reputation and brand

Key insight: New Zealand currently ranks 25th for media and communication and 30th for culture and heritage on the Global Soft Power Index.

Soft power is a key indicator of global reputation and reflects the strength of a nation’s brand

Soft power is defined as a nation’s ability to influence others through attraction and persuasion, rather than force or financial incentives (Council on Foreign Relations, 2023). 

The most prominent annual ranking currently available is the Global Soft Power Index ¹ (GSPI) published by Brand Finance. There are several measures in the GSPI that relate to the cultural system, including People and Values, Recommendation (to live, study, work in or visit New Zealand), Media and Communication, and Culture and Heritage, which includes arts, heritage, sport and tourism measures (Brand Finance, 2026). 

Overall, New Zealand ranks 26th out of 193 UN member states on the Global Soft Power Index 2026.

Figure 1. New Zealand ranking on Global Soft Power Index 2026. 
Source: Brand Finance, 2026

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Leveraging cultural assets – especially those less visible in international markets – could strengthen New Zealand’s reputation and brand

Recent findings from a deep dive into international market perceptions of New Zealand’s arts, culture and heritage (New Zealand Story and Fiftyfive5, 2025) have found that while New Zealand has a strong reputation and brand overall, there are differences in how aspects of New Zealand’s culture and heritage are perceived, with audiences having more familiarity with some parts of New Zealand culture over others.

Generally, for some international markets, the creative and sporting industries lacked consistent association with New Zealand outside of a few iconic examples, indicating a need for greater global visibility. There is an opportunity to raise the visibility of New Zealand’s achievements in arts and entertainment, as well as to further highlight New Zealand’s unique cultural identity to international audiences.

Arts and entertainment sectors need support to tell more locally grown stories that reflect New Zealand’s people, place, and culture, so audiences can envisage and define New Zealand art, entertainment, and culture. (New Zealand Story and Fiftyfive5, 2025, p. 58)

Endnote

1. The Global Soft Power Index is a measure based on international perceptions across eight pillars: Business and Trade, International Relations, Education and Science, Culture and Heritage, Governance, Media and Communication, Sustainable Future, People and Values (Brand Finance, 2026)

International collaboration and cooperation

Key insight: New Zealand’s cultural system is empowered by global cooperation, co-productions and foreign investment

International collaborations and co-productions create a wide range of mutual benefits for organisations, practitioners and communities

These benefits include increased cultural participation, networking and market exposure, growing talent, knowledge and skills exchanges, capability building, and content creation. Government investment has supported many of these outcomes. For example:

• In 2023/24, Creative New Zealand provided $2.8 million in investment to support creative and cultural practitioners and organisations to present work overseas and build global networks, enabling 700 opportunities for audiences to experience New Zealand artistic works internationally (Creative New Zealand, 2024).
• In 2023/24, the Outward Sound Programme administered by the New Zealand Music Commission approved 102 grants to support costs of international touring, showcasing and collaboration. Outward Sound-supported artists collectively achieved over 1.5 billion streams globally (2022–2023), with 23 artists surpassing 50 million streams each (2023–2024) (New Zealand Music Commission, 2024).
• The Royal New Zealand Ballet’s Hansel & Gretel is being restaged internationally, with this work now being produced by a fourth North American company.
• The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa touring exhibition Bug Lab has attracted 1,683,000 visitors across museums in Canada and the United States since it began touring in 2019, while Ngā Taniwha o Rūpapa Dinosaurs of Patagonia, presented in partnership with Argentina’s Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio, attracted over 105,000 visitors (Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2025b).

Within the Pacific region, these collaborations are helping to strengthen identity, preserve culture and heritage, and improve wellbeing

New Zealand holds strong reciprocal relationships and connections across the Pacific, which are intertwined with the many Pacific communities established within New Zealand. This is reflected in the cultural system’s partnerships across the region, which alongside capability building and knowledge/skills exchange, deliver diverse initiatives including strategic funding and resourcing, museum stewardship, education and academic engagement, and international festivals and events. 

Many partnerships are focused on supporting the preservation and revival of Pacific arts, culture and heritage. New Zealand participates, for example, in international initiatives including the Pacific Regional Culture Strategy 2022–2032, endorsed by cultural ministers in 2022, and the ongoing Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture (FestPAC). Within New Zealand, there is an active and connected Pacific festival ecosystem and community, which supports the expression of cultural identity, social inclusion, and cultural revival. In a recent survey of New Zealanders’ cultural participation, 17 percent of respondents reported attending a Pacific cultural festival, an increase from 7 percent in 2022 (Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage, 2026). The annual Pasifika Festival, for example, has in the past attracted around 200,000 visitors (Tātaki Auckland Unlimited, 2022) and generates broad economic and social value for stall holders, local suppliers, attendees and wider communities.

Museums also play a role in helping New Zealanders to connect with Pacific histories and understand Pacific communities today. Pacific peoples envision museums as spaces that enable non-Pacific audiences to appreciate these histories and the ways they shape Pacific peoples’ contemporary realities (Matada Research Group Ltd., 2023). For example, Vaiei Tupuna, a recent international collaboration exploring tapa’s ongoing cultural relevance through ancestral knowledge and contemporary practice, has culminated in an exhibition by Te Papa and Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery (Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2025a). 

More broadly, Pacific partnerships are achieving wider social, cultural and health outcomes. For example, in sport and recreation, the Pacific Sporting Partnerships Programme (2017–2022), a partnership between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, New Zealand Rugby and Netball New Zealand, aimed to support the prevention and reduction of non-communicable diseases ² in the Pacific by encouraging youth participation in sports and increasing health lifestyles (IOD PARC, 2021). Evidence from stakeholders demonstrated the initiative positively contributed to:

• building connections (social cohesion) in and between individuals, families, and communities
• adding value to community development outcomes
• strengthening Pacific mana
• broadening the knowledge base on healthy lifestyles, and
• learning important life skills such as decision making, leadership, and critical thinking skills (Ibid, p. 8–9).

Foreign investment increases capital and enhances market access

Foreign investment – attracted in large part by New Zealand government investment – stimulates industry growth, attracts international projects and events to New Zealand, and allows New Zealand art forms and sports to be showcased to the world. For example:

• The New Zealand Screen Production Rebate Grant (NZSPR) attracted more than 100 international productions between 2014–2021, generating just over NZ$4 billion in output (Olsberg SPI, 2022). In 2024/25, the 14 international projects that accessed the NZSPR started shooting in New Zealand, generating $647 million in qualifying New Zealand production expenditure and enhancing New Zealand’s global reputation as a competitive screen production hub (New Zealand Film Commission, 2025). In 2022/2023, 75 percent of international stakeholders agreed that New Zealand is considered a world leading destination for screen production (New Zealand Film Commission, 2024).
• In 2024/25, the Game Development Sector Rebate (GDSR) (2024/25) provided $22 million in funding to support development and growth across the sector (NZGDA, 2025). In the same year, the 40 GDSR supported studios generated $711 million in revenue from eligible gaming products (NZ On Air, 2025). In the previous year, 15 percent of new hires within the industry were reported as being from overseas (NZGDA, 2024).
• Grants from international sport and recreation governing bodies – valued at $78 million in 2022 – provide significant revenue that supports local organisations, clubs and facilities, and services throughout New Zealand (Sport New Zealand and NZIER, 2023). This revenue often increases when New Zealand is hosting a pinnacle event (e.g., the FIFA Legacy Fund to Develop the Game for Girls and Women; New Zealand Football, 2025).

International cooperation can protect and facilitate participation in the global cultural ecosystem

New Zealand’s many international treaties and agreements – examples of formalised cooperation – aim to support the trade of cultural goods and services and protect New Zealand’s intellectual property and cultural heritage.

Table 1. Examples of New Zealand’s international treaties and agreements relating to the arts, heritage, media, and sport and recreation sectors (as at December 2025)

Endnote

2. ‘Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are progressive, chronic diseases and those affected by it require long term medical care. NCDs manifest in several ways, including strokes, diabetes-related blindness and amputations, kidney disease, lack of mobility, etc., which impose a heavy burden of care on families and health care systems. To prevent NCDs, it is important to address its main risk factors, i.e., tobacco use, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity, and the harmful use of alcohol.’ (IOD PARC, 2021, p. 6)

New Zealand’s creative exports

Key insight: Creative exports were New Zealand’s fourth largest commodity in 2023, generating almost NZ$3.8 billion.

Global demand is growing for creative exports

International creative services exports ³ surged to US$1.4 trillion in 2022 – a 29 percent increase since 2017 – while creative goods exports reached US$713 billion, up 19 percent (UNCTAD, 2024a, 2024b). Creative services made up 19 percent of all service exports in 2022 (compared to 12 percent in 2010), whereas creative goods remain around 3 percent of total goods exports (UNCTAD, 2024b).

In 2023, New Zealand’s creative goods and services exports were valued at just over US$2.3 billion (almost NZ$3.8 billion)

Analysis by the United Nations Conference on Trade & Development (UNCTAD) provides estimates of New Zealand’s creative exports over time up to the year 2023 (UNCTAD, 2025). As indicated in the table below, the bulk of New Zealand’s creative exports comes from creative services, many of which are digital or weightless trade.

Table 2. Exports of New Zealand creative goods and services, 2023. 
Source: UNCTAD, 2025.

*Calculated using average USD to NZD exchange rate for 2023 (1.6293).

Looking by sector, the game development sector generated NZ$709 million in weightless exports in 2024/25 (95 percent of total revenue), with revenue increasing 39 percent from the previous year (NZGDA, 2025). The screen sector has similarly generated around $700 million in exports annually (NZIER, 2017), though there has been some volatility recently due to global industry conditions and market dynamics (NZIER and Verian, 2025). ⁴

In 2023, creative exports were New Zealand’s fourth largest commodity, after dairy, meat and wood and ahead of fruit, cereals and wine (Eaqub et al., 2025).

Figure 2. Creative exports vs. top 10 commodities 2023. 
Source: Eaqub et al., 2025

Image

As a share of GDP, the contribution of New Zealand’s creative exports is not as high as some jurisdictions like Sweden, Denmark, and Canada, but is larger than Norway and Australia (Eaqub et al., 2025).

Figure 3. Creative export share of GDP in comparison to other countries. 
Source: Eaqub et al., 2025.

Image

Endnotes

3. Key creative services exports include: screen production (feature films, TV series, post-production services), music (streaming, touring, licensing), game development (Indie and AAA titles, mobile games, VR/AR experiences), design (graphic, fashion, product and spatial design), publishing (books, digital content, educational media), visual arts (exhibitions, digital prints, NFTs), and creative tech (VFX, animation, immersive media).

4. There has been significant fluctuation in New Zealand screen exports over the past five years. NZIER and Verian (2025, p. 13) explains: ‘exports remain more volatile and closely tied to international production cycles […]. Consumer demand dynamics, screen production volatility, and global competition for incentives and a mobile labour force drive screen industry imports and exports.’ New Zealand exports of audiovisual and related services (which includes screen) averaged $717.69 million per year between 2020–2025 (Stats NZ, 2025a).

Culture-related tourism

Key insight: There is strong demand for New Zealand’s unique culture and heritage, with $2.3 billion in tourism spending linked to cultural activities in 2024.

Cultural content and storytelling play an important role in building New Zealand’s international appeal

New Zealand screen content draws international tourists to New Zealand, with recent research estimating $2.7 billion in annual tourism expenditure is linked to New Zealand screen content (NZIER and Verian, 2025). In the year ending December 2025, 45.8 percent of international visitors to New Zealand reported that New Zealand landscapes were a factor in their choice to visit New Zealand, and 12.4 percent cited the influence of The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings films (Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, 2026).

In further research, 72 percent of international respondents surveyed agreed that screen content made them consider visiting New Zealand (NZIER and Verian, 2025).

Figure 4. Factors in deciding to visit New Zealand – YE December 2025. 
Source: Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, 2026.

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Research across a range of global audiences has noted the importance of Māori culture and storytelling in broader visitor perceptions as a ‘distinct and rich element of New Zealand’s culture’ (New Zealand Story and Fiftyfive5, 2025, p. 43). For example, looking again at New Zealand screen content:

• 66–87 percent of global survey respondents agreed that Māori storytelling helps ‘position New Zealand as a leader in Indigenous storytelling’ ⁵
• 87 percent said that ‘Māori stories help them value indigenous storytelling more broadly’
• 83 percent said ‘Māori stories give New Zealand a distinctive voice in global film and television and make New Zealand culture feel more distinctive and authentic’
• 84 percent believed ‘Māori stories drive perceptions of how New Zealand is perceived internationally’ (NZIER and Verian, 2025).

There is consistent demand for New Zealand cultural activities among visitors, with Māori cultural experiences featuring strongly

In the year to March 2024, $2.3 billion in tourism expenditure was linked to cultural, recreation, travel and tour services (Stats NZ, 2025b). In 2022/23, there were 2.1 million visits by international visitors to museums and art galleries alone in New Zealand (Museums Aotearoa and BERL, 2024). Recent data (year to December 2025) has found:

• 39.0 percent of international tourists visited a public museum or art gallery
• 25.4 percent visited a film location, tour or experience
• 8.1 percent watched or played some sport
• 5.4 percent attended a live performance of music (Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, 2026).

In particular, there is demand for Māori cultural and heritage experiences among international tourists. In the year ending December 2025:

• 24.2 percent visited a place that is significant to Māori
• 19.1 percent saw Māori artefacts, arts or crafts in an exhibition
• 13.2 percent visited a marae
• 12.4 percent watched a live Māori performance (Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, 2026).

Reflecting on their experiences, 89.7 percent of international visitors said they ‘enjoyed [their] experience of Māori culture’ (see Figure 5, ‘All countries’ proportion of responses who agree), and 57.6 percent said they would have liked to experience more (Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment, 2026).

Figure 5. Enjoyed experience of Māori culture by country of residence – YE December 2025. 
Source: Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, 2026.

Image

More broadly, Māori tourism generates significant value for Te Ōhanga Māori (the Māori economy) across a range of social, cultural and economic outcomes, as well as for the New Zealand economy (New Zealand Māori Tourism, 2025). In 2023, Māori tourism accounted for NZ$1.2 billion of New Zealand’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), an increase from $975 million in 2018. The sector employed more than 15,000 people across 3,595 Māori tourism businesses throughout New Zealand. Of these businesses, 180 were in heritage, sports, and physical recreation activities, which includes, for example, art galleries, museums, and historical, cultural, and heritage sites (New Zealand Māori Tourism, 2025).

Major events connect New Zealand to international markets and further enhance tourism

It is well-established that major arts, cultural and sporting events stimulate local and international tourism and add value to the regions where they are held (see Economy Te Ōhanga evidence brief). Evaluation of the recent FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 highlights these impacts.

FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023

The FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023^TM tournament, co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia, was a landmark event with significant economic impact. As a case study, it demonstrates the implications of live events for international tourism, global relationships, Indigenous collaboration, and cultural diplomacy. Here's a summary of its importance across these dimensions:

• The tournament attracted 26,915 international visitors to New Zealand, generating 312,008 visitor nights with an average stay of 11.6 nights.
• These visitors contributed $80.4 million in tourism-related expenditure, including accommodation, food, transport, and retail.
• The event generated an estimated $22.5 million in future tourism value through global media exposure, showcasing New Zealand to nearly 600 million viewers.
• Additional cultural outcomes reported include the establishment of the first FIFA cultural panel The First Sisters of Country. This group was set up to ‘provide cultural input to ensure First Nations and Tangata Whenua voices informed cultural engagement initiatives and to ensure the tikanga and values of both countries were upheld during the tournament.’ (Fresh Info, 2023, p. 52).
• The opening ceremony cast included 240 local performers—with more than 45 Māori and First Nations performers involved in the production of the ceremony. Resulting publicity across the world ‘pointed to the celebration of indigenous cultures.’ (Fresh Info, 2023, p. 52).
• Post-event surveys showed that 72 percent of spectators and 76 percent of volunteers felt Māori culture was a strong theme throughout the event.

Source: Fresh Info, 2023.

Endnote

5. Original wording ‘Māori-led narratives are a global strength, with 66 percent to 87 percent of viewers across markets agreeing they help position New Zealand as a leader in Indigenous storytelling’ (NZIER and Verian, 2025, p. 52)

Implications for future research

Consistent measurement and evaluation would support greater understanding of direct impact.

Several factors affect the availability and reliability of data evidencing the cultural system’s impact on New Zealand’s global connections

These factors include:

• dated definitions for cultural goods and services, which may not accurately reflect current practices
• varying organisational capability and capacity across the cultural system
• limited availability of resources to conduct research, evaluation or measurement, especially for international productions and collaboration
• the complexity of measuring outcomes relating to global trade, diplomacy and perceptions, which can be impacted by many factors
• the challenge of achieving consistent measurement across a diverse cultural system to support systems-level analysis, as well as between countries.

Evidence is particularly lacking to understand attribution or how much the cultural system plays a role in specific impacts

Gaps in the evidence base persist, for example, relating to:

• the impact and outcomes of specific collaborations and co-productions
• the value of cultural exports, particularly digital, Māori and Pacific cultural and creative exports
• the direct impact of cultural and sports diplomacy interventions on New Zealand’s strategic relationships
• the role and impact of Māori leadership and participation in global collaboration and cooperation.

Future work to improve data in this area could include working toward a unified national framework to easily locate and monitor cultural trade data or conducting more in-depth and consistent evaluation of international collaborations, co-productions and cultural diplomacy initiatives.

Methodology

Data collection and analysis

To prepare this evidence brief, a range of New Zealand and international data and evidence were reviewed relating to the following elements within the Global Connections area of inquiry of Te Kāpehu: cultural diplomacy, foreign investment and trade, Pacific regional identity, Māori cultural system leadership, reputation, brand and soft power, and tourism. 

The review focused on New Zealand academic, government and other publicly available sources from the past five years. Evidence was analysed thematically to identify and validate findings, and a gap analysis was conducted to identify areas where there is a lack of data and evidence. Key insights were then developed and tested with a range of stakeholders and quality assurance activities were conducted. This work was completed in collaboration with the Ministry’s Te Kāpehu project partners, who provided essential input throughout the process. 

Use of artificial intelligence (AI)

Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage has used AI to develop aspects of this document in line with the Government Chief Digital Officer’s Responsible AI Guidance for the Public Service: GenAI, including with human oversight of any generated material. AI was used to help locate evidence sources, develop options to structure the evidence brief, and to provide initial drafts of some paragraphs based on outlined material.

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