Tourism & Hospitality advisory services

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Helping your tourism and hospitality business grow with confidence

Running a tourism or hospitality business in New Zealand means balancing seasonal demand, rising operating costs, workforce pressures and changing visitor expectations, while continuing to deliver memorable experiences.

Whether you run a hotel, holiday park, accommodation business, restaurant, cafe, visitor attraction, tour operation, transport service or leisure business, you need reliable information and practical advice to make confident decisions.

We support a diverse range of tourism and hospitality businesses, including independent operators, hospitality groups, visitor attractions, franchise businesses, iwi-owned enterprises and businesses with international growth ambitions.

BDO’s tourism and hospitality team work alongside you to improve performance, manage risk and plan for sustainable growth. We combine local market knowledge with expertise across business advisory, tax, audit, digital, people and risk, connecting you with the right support as your needs change.

What sets BDO's tourism and hospitality services apart?

You benefit most from advice that reflects the realities of a people-focused, highly competitive and often seasonal sector. BDO works alongside tourism and hospitality businesses throughout New Zealand, bringing together local relationships, practical sector knowledge and specialist expertise.

Our teams are located across New Zealand, including major tourism centres. This regional presence helps us understand local operating conditions, while our national and global networks provide access to wider perspectives and specialist capability when required.

Many of the challenges facing tourism and hospitality businesses overlap with those experienced in retail, franchising, Māori business and internationally focused businesses. Where relevant, we can connect you with specialist advisers from across BDO's wider sector and service teams to help you navigate complex commercial, financial and growth challenges.

We take time to understand your business, the experience you want to deliver and the outcomes you are working towards. From improving day-to-day performance to navigating a major change, our advice is practical, tailored and focused on helping you move forward with confidence.

Get in touch today to see how we can help your tourism business reach its goals.

How BDO helps tourism and hospitality businesses

Understand what is driving your margins

Tourism and hospitality profitability depends on understanding your costs, pricing, margins, capacity and demand. Clear financial information helps you identify your break-even point, understand where profit is being gained or lost and decide which actions will make the greatest difference.

Changing visitor numbers, labour costs, occupancy or utilisation rates, supplier costs and discounting can all affect performance. We help you turn financial and operational data into practical decisions about pricing, staffing, investment, growth and day-to-day operations.

  • Analyse profitability and the factors affecting your margins
  • Review pricing, costs and operating efficiency
  • Improve management reporting and forecasting
  • Benchmark performance and identify improvement opportunities
  • Use data to support timely, confident decisions

Explore our business advisory services for practical support to improve performance and plan ahead.

Build financial resilience across busy and quieter periods

Strong cash flow planning helps you prepare for seasonal peaks, manage shoulder season and quieter trading periods, and respond to unexpected change. It also gives you greater confidence when considering recruitment, capital expenditure, funding or expansion.

Tourism and hospitality businesses often experience significant fluctuations in demand throughout the year. Understanding your cash position, forward bookings, break-even levels and occupancy or yield assumptions can help you forecast future requirements, test different scenarios and respond quickly when circumstances change. 

Many businesses also reach a point where they need stronger financial oversight and strategic support but are not yet ready to employ a full-time Chief Financial Officer. In these situations, access to experienced financial leadership can help improve forecasting, strengthen reporting, provide greater visibility over business performance and support more informed commercial decision-making. BDO's Virtual CFO service is designed to provide this level of support, helping businesses navigate growth opportunities, funding discussions, seasonal pressures and periods of uncertainty. 

We help you understand how visitor numbers, pricing, wage costs and other operating expenses may affect future cash requirements, then test different scenarios and identify actions that can strengthen financial resilience.

  • Build or improve cash flow forecasts
  • Plan for different demand, occupancy and cost scenarios
  • Understand working capital and funding requirements
  • Monitor forward bookings and shoulder-season performance
  • Understand break-even levels and occupancy or yield assumptions
  • Prepare contingency and business continuity plans
  • Assess the financial impact of growth and capital investment decisions
  • Improve management reporting and performance visibility
  • Access Virtual CFO support and strategic financial expertise.

Strengthen the team behind the customer experience

Your people shape the experience your customers receive. Workforce shortages, seasonal recruitment, leadership capability, employee retention and payroll complexity can all place pressure on your business and management team.

A clear people strategy, well-supported leaders and reliable workforce processes can help you align staffing with seasonal demand, manage wage pressure, improve productivity, retain capable people and deliver more consistent customer experiences.

  • Plan for seasonal and long-term workforce needs
  • Strengthen leadership and management capability
  • Improve employee engagement and performance
  • Prepare for succession and key-person risk
  • Review payroll processes, controls and compliance

Learn more about our payroll services for support with payroll systems, risk, compliance and processing.

Use better information to respond to changing demand

Improving occupancy or utilisation is not only about attracting more customers. It requires a clear understanding of demand patterns, pricing, capacity, customer behaviour and the experience you deliver.

Better data and integrated systems can help you identify trends, reduce manual work and make faster decisions across bookings, operations, finance, workforce management and customer engagement.

  • Improve visibility across financial and operational performance
  • Identify patterns in demand, capacity and customer behaviour
  • Connect systems and reduce duplicated manual processes
  • Strengthen reporting and business intelligence
  • Use technology to support a more consistent customer experience

See how BDO Digital can help align your systems, data and technology with your business goals.

Plan your next move with greater confidence

Growth can create exciting opportunities, but it also brings financial, operational and people considerations. You may be expanding into a new location, investing in a hospitality fit-out or accommodation asset, buying or selling a business, seeking funding or preparing for succession.

We help you understand the commercial implications of major decisions, assess options and build a practical plan for what comes next.

  • Assess expansion and investment opportunities
  • Develop strategic and financial plans
  • Evaluate acquisitions, sales or ownership changes
  • Understand business value and funding requirements
  • Prepare for succession or exit

Connect growth decisions to your wider plan with support from our advisory team.

Protect performance while meeting your obligations

Tourism and hospitality businesses operate across a wide range of tax, employment, governance, technology and regulatory obligations. A proactive approach helps you reduce disruption, protect your reputation and make confident decisions.

We work with you to identify the risks that matter, strengthen controls and keep your financial foundations in good order.

Choose systems that support your business goals

The right technology can improve reporting, automate manual work, support workforce management and give you a more connected view of your business. The challenge is choosing solutions that fit your needs and implementing them without unnecessary disruption.

We help you assess your current systems, identify priorities and create a practical path forward. This may include digital strategy, system selection, business reporting, data insights, integration and change support.

  • Review whether current systems remain fit for purpose
  • Develop a digital strategy or technology roadmap
  • Select systems that align with operational needs
  • Improve reporting, data quality and business insight
  • Plan implementation, integration and change

Explore our digital advisory and strategy services.

Tourism and hospitality businesses we work with

  • Hotels, resorts and accommodation providers
  • Holiday parks and campground operators
  • Restaurants, cafes, pubs and hospitality groups
  • Tour operators and travel businesses
  • Visitor attractions and experience providers
  • Adventure tourism businesses
  • Vehicle rental, transport and tourism logistics providers
  • Event, conference and venue operators
  • Sports and leisure businesses
  • Tourism industry and governing bodies.


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Key contact

Richard Timpany

Richard Timpany

National Tourism Sector Leader, Advisory Partner
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Meet our Tourism & Hospitality team

Tourism & Hospitality sector insights

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