DOC’s visitor insights reports look at where people are going outdoors, how people feel about their experiences, trends in visitor activity and any visitor impacts observed.
They are based off the best information available at the time and so locations and date ranges for different data sets can vary (eg DOC’s activity counters given the data from these are manually downloaded).
Understanding visitor activity reports
These reports look at where people went and what they did outdoors, with analysis and insights of data. It identifies visitor trends.
- Understanding 2024/25 visitor activity (PDF, 15,129K)
- Understanding 2023/24 visitor activity (PDF, 8,717K)
- Understanding 2022/23 visitor activity (PDF, 3,351K)
- 2022/23 visitor insights report (PDF, 6,953K)
- 2021/22 visitor insights report (PDF, 8,352K)
- 2020/21 visitor insights report (PDF, 1,852)
Summer visitor activity reports
These reports look at where people went and what impacts were observed during summer.
- Understanding 2024/25 summer activity (PDF, 3,971K)
- Understanding 2023/2024 summer activity (PDF, 5,616K)
- Summer 2021/22 visitor insights report (PDF, 10,573K)
- Summer 2020/21 visitor insights report (PDF, 10.201K)
Māori engagement with public conservation land and waters 2024
These research findings identify barriers and facilitators of Māori engagement with public conservation land and waters to support work across DOC's recreation and heritage experiences.
Māori engagement with public conservation land and waters 2024 (PDF, 1,886K)
Insights from the Queen Charlotte Track 2022
This document provides an insights snapshot of research into the walking experience of visitors on Queen Charlotte Track. It focuses on three key areas: why visitors walk the track, how they connect with nature, and what ‘giving back’ to conservation means.
Giving back to nature: Insights from the Queen Charlotte Track (PDF, 2,520K)
Resilience through nature 2021
This document gives an insights snapshot into New Zealanders’ participation in the outdoors within a COVID-19 context.
Resilience through nature (PDF, 2,370K)
New Zealanders and the environment 2021
This customer research report provides a snapshot of New Zealanders’ experiences in the outdoors and their interaction with biodiversity and conservation. The findings provide guidance on how DOC might support New Zealanders to get more involved in caring for species and places. The report also looks at domestic attitudes towards the outdoors and access to it.
New Zealanders and the environment (PDF, 2,803)
New Zealanders in the outdoors 2020
The research results provide insights into how New Zealanders participate in outdoor activities to help improve DOC's understanding of its ‘customers’ or those who use (or could potentially use) public conservation land and waters. The findings segment New Zealanders on needs and motivations for participating in the outdoors. It also includes life-stage differences.
New Zealanders in the Outdoors: Domestic customer segmentation research 2020 (PDF, 260K)
Visitor figures 2018-2020
These reports outline visitor trends, for both domestic and international visitors, at popular DOC sites.