2025 Q1 Hospitality Sales Snapshot

The 2025 Q1 Hospitality Sales Snapshot provides top line sales statistics on the hospitality industry.

The first quarter of 2025 confirmed that while some areas of our hospitality sector are stabilising, the industry continues to operate under sustained pressure. Many long-standing issues—including high fixed costs, labour shortages, and inconsistent demand—remain unresolved. Nationally, sales growth was marginal at 1.0% compared to Q1 2024, reflecting an overall softer-than-expected Summer period. This underscores the fragile nature of recovery and the need for targeted interventions that support both resilience and growth. The sector is not standing still, turning Challenge into Action in response to these ongoing pressures.

Consumer sentiment remains cautious as broader economic pressures affect discretionary spending. Operators must continue to adapt through digital innovation, service differentiation, and hyper-local marketing strategies. At the same time, addressing workforce and infrastructure bottlenecks will be critical to capitalising on tourism gains.

Ours is a sector navigating uneven recovery. Regional gains show promise, but sustainable growth will depend on attracting international visitors, addressing workforce gaps, and spreading demand more evenly. By backing sector-led solutions, hospitality can shape its own path forward.

With data sourced from Statistics New Zealand and the Restaurant Association, the Q1 Report provides relevant data on the state of the hospitality industry.

Selected highlights:

• Total sales for the industry over the 1st quarter of 2025 were $4 billion, representing a 1.0 per cent sales increase over the same quarter a year previous.
• Dollar value of sales for the restaurant and cafe sector for the 1st quarter of 2025 was $1.99 billion. This sector has a 49.8 per cent sales market share of the industry overall.
• Regionally, revenue growth in the Nelson region was the most significant for the 1st quarter of 2025 vs the previous year. In dollar value, the region increased from $46 million sales in Q1 2024 to $53.6 million sales in Q1 2025. Queenstown-Lakes’s revenue growth was also significant at 13.4 per cent growth over the same period the year previous. Sales for this region are 30 per cent higher than 2023.

The 2025 Q1 Hospitality Sales snapshot includes:

• Quarterly sales data by sector for Q1 2025 (restaurants & cafés; pubs, taverns & bars; catering; food to go; and clubs), showing sales trend over previous year and previous quarter
• Regional outlook for sales for Q1 covering the following regions:  Northland Region, Auckland Region, Waikato Region, Bay of Plenty Region, Gisborne Region, Hawke’s Bay Region, Taranaki Region, Manawatu-Wanganui Region, Wellington Region, West Coast Region, Tasman Region, Nelson Region, Marlborough Region, Kaikoura, Canterbury Region excl Kaikoura, Otago Region excl Queenstown-Lakes, Queenstown-Lakes, Southland Region

Restaurant Association members can download the full free electronic copy of the 2025 Q1 Hospitality Sales Snapshot here. 

If you are not a member of the Restaurant Association, the 2025 Q1 Report is available for purchase to the wider industry for $60.00 +gst. Let us know if you’d like to talk to one of our team about becoming a member, or click here for more information.