• by Danielle Oster , April 8, 2025

Tourism New Zealand is inviting visitors to new places in a familiar (virtual) environment.

In collaboration with Warner Bros. and video game developer Mojang Studios, Tourism New Zealand created destination downloadable content (DLC) for the video game “Minecraft,” especially timely now because of its tie-in to the just-released “A Minecraft Movie.”

The DLC includes representations of six specific regions of New Zealand, including the Waitomo Caves (Waikato), Rotorua (Bay of Plenty) and Kapiti Island (Wellington), where gamers can experience a variety of real-world activities within the world of “Minecraft."

For example, in the Waikato section,  gamers can engage in a parkour (wall running) and capture activity, moving through a pair of caverns and taking pictures of stalactites and stalagmite and “constellations” of glowworms, ending with a black water experience floating through a glowworm cave.

Many people play “Minecraft,” so the marketing initiative has the potential to reach a wide audience in an unusual way -- and Tourism New Zealand claims the initiative is a global first. According to a recent Kantar survey cited by Tourism New Zealand, 67% of respondents said they engaged with "Minecraft," 81% of whom said they’d be interested in experiencing New Zealand within the game.

Principal photography for  “A Minecraft Movie,” directed by Jared Hess (“Napoleon Dynamite,” “Nacho Libre”), and starring Jack Black and,Jason Momoa, was shot in New Zealand last year.

Should the movie, and the tourism group’s campaign, result in a boost in travel to the country, it wouldn’t be the first time Hollywood helped generate interest in New Zealand. Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” adaptation, also shot there, was famously a boon for the country’s tourism industry.