"We've had a lot of people knocking on the door, from the Chinese, the Russians and people in Texas, but what I really want to do is keep the jetpack here in New Zealand," the founding director and inventor of Martin Jetpack, Glenn Martin, said.
Mr Martin arrived in Queenstown on Wednesday evening to deliver a presentation of the history of the jetpack's development to an audience of more than 70 people.
"I hope I don't get laughed at in Queenstown, but I believe people understand ambition here. People would have laughed at A. J. Hackett when he first showed up," he said.
The Martin Jetpack is capable of sustaining 30-minute flights for a 100kg person, at a maximum speed of 103kmh.
Based in Christchurch, Mr Martin is looking for funding to launch the adventure tourism branch of operations, the "Martin Jetpack Experience".
A one-hour package, expected to cost between $280 and $320, would see the customer receive tuition and photos and video footage of them flying a Martin Jetpack for about three minutes.
"Ideally, we would launch in Christchurch, then Queenstown and then Rotorua.
"But if someone comes to me and says, `Here's the investment, but it has to launch in Queenstown,' I would happily comply," he said.
After 10 years of secrecy, Mr Martin first unveiled his creation publicly to an audience of more than 15,000 at a United States airshow in July 2008 - which had the highest attendance since 1953.
Speaking after the presentation, Mr Martin said he was optimistic the venture would be launched within "one year to 18 months".
Mr Martin said the difficulty in securing investment was because of the jetpack's "unique nature".
"Of course, I would like to keep the manufacturing in New Zealand and there is no reason why we can't build a factory in Christchurch ... The only issue is money.
"Typical marketing procedure would be to demonstrate a gap in the market, using competition as examples, but we don't have any competition," he said.
After further testing, the Martin Jetpack is expected to retail to the public for $100,000 per unit, and Mr Martin expects the legal user age-limit to be set at 16.
