Investment and collaborative input will also be accepted from industry associations, regional tourism organisations, iwi and hapu.
Tourism businesses can apply for government funding from an $8 million pool aimed at boosting innovation and lifting productivity to generate better returns from international visitors.
While the number of visitors has been rising during the last decade, average spend per tourist has been static or falling among some nationalities.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment is administering the Tourism Growth Partnership and tourism policy manager Robyn Henderson said there had already been significant interest in it among tourism operators.
Eligible co-investors may be individual businesses, or groups of businesses and other participants. Investment and collaborative input will also be accepted from industry associations, regional tourism organisations, iwi and hapu.
Each project will be a joint investment between the government and industry and qualifying contributions from the co-investors must be equal to or greater than the government's share.
