Ahead of the 2025 Aotearoa Hotel Industry Conference and Exhibition (AHICE) and the signing of Sheraton Christchurch, Marriott International’s Vice President Hotel Development, ANZP, Richard Crawford, spoke exclusively to HM about the company’s plans for the New Zealand market.
Following Marriott International’s acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide in late 2016, our immediate focus was on integrating the newly combined portfolio. The following year, we opened our first hotel in New Zealand, Four Points by Sheraton Auckland, which quickly became one of the city’s highest performing hotels. Shortly thereafter, we saw the Covid pandemic significantly impact the industry, both in terms of travel restrictions and hotel development activity. Despite those challenges, in 2019 we signed agreements for a Moxy Hotel to be built in Queenstown, and in 2020 we signed another deal for a new-build Moxy in Auckland. Fast-forward a few years, New Zealand’s border restrictions fully lifted in mid-2023, and today the travel industry continues to recover.
At a time when new hotel opportunities were scarce in New Zealand, in 2022 we signed JW Marriott Auckland and officially launched the hotel in May 2025, after a whole-of-property renovation, which was a landmark luxury hotel opening for New Zealand. There is an enduring high level of trans-Tasman travel, with New Zealand a perennial top destination for Australian travellers, who represented 1.4 million of the 3.3 million visitors to New Zealand in 2024. With the New Zealand tourism sector starting to recover post-pandemic and travel demand returning, we believe the timing is now right to introduce more of our well-loved global brands to tier-one and tier-two destinations across New Zealand. This objective is supported by a growing level confidence within the country’s hotel investment community.
Our Auckland portfolio consist of the recently launched JW Marriott Auckland and Four Points by Sheraton Auckland. Next to come will be Moxy Auckland, which is currently under development on Wakefield Street in Auckland’s CBD.
Our future outlook includes Moxy Queenstown, and we are in active negotiations regarding multiple opportunities across the country – with an exciting new hotel signing to be announced in the coming weeks.
With more than 30 brands in our global portfolio, and 237 million loyal Marriott Bonvoy members wanting even more choice, we see strong potential to introduce a range of hotel experiences to suit different travel segments, and we are very confident about New Zealand’s prospects of long-term success as a destination of choice.