The Board of Destination Queenstown (DQ) announced the appointment of Mat Woods to the position of chief executive, starting on June 20.

Mat Woods brings extensive experience across senior tourism, retail and sales roles to the position.

Most recently Mat has held the role of General Manager at NZ Fine Touring and prior to that he was GM of Queenstown Experience at RealNZ and Head of Sales & Services at Cardrona Alpine Resort and Treble Cone. Before entering tourism, Mat had run operations for Torpedo7 and been Managing Director of R&R Sport. 

He is also currently the Chair of Lake Wānaka Tourism and on the Snow Sports NZ Board.

Destination Queenstown Chair Richard Thomas said both he and the DQ Board are delighted to welcome Mat into the position.

“Mat has a strong passion for Queenstown and for our reputation as a world-class visitor destination. He brings strong leadership and commercial skills and a deep focus and understanding of revenue generation. He is entrepreneurial and has a solid history of building businesses.

“The DQ Board were impressed with Mat’s energetic approach and his understanding of the issues, the sector and his involvement in the development of the region’s destination management plan.

"Mat has strong stakeholder management skills and being Chair of Lake Wānaka Tourism has given him sound understanding of an RTO which will enable him to hit the ground running,” said Richard.

Mat said he is excited to take on the role and looking forward to getting started next month.