He made a presentation to about 80 members of Dunedin's tourism industry at the Forsyth Barr Stadium yesterday.
Mr Bowler said Otago was also attracting more affluent tourists, in New Zealand for relatively longer stays.
Those from the European and Asian markets in particular were travelling south for an authentic experience of New Zealand, comparatively untouched by tourism, he said.
"New Zealand, ultimately, is built up by a whole lot of interesting and remarkable places, and Dunedin is certainly one of those and has a lot of opportunity," he said.
In response to a question about the protection of natural environments, Mr Bowler said it was imperative New Zealand retained its point of difference as a relatively unspoiled landscape, but TNZ's 100% Pure NZ brand was not exclusively about nature.
Authentic Kiwi experiences were being marketed, he said.
"That doesn't mean to be a cop-out. Protecting natural resources is vitally important ... [but] sometimes people take out of it a much narrower perspective than what we are trying to put into it," he said.
Mr Bowler was joined by TNZ board chairwoman Kerry Prendergast for the nationwide tour, aimed at updating tourism professionals and interested others on the final phase of a three-year marketing strategy.
TNZ was in its last year of the three-year project and was informing those in the industry of its renewed focus in terms of international marketing, distribution and partnerships, a spokeswoman said.
A presentation was made in Queenstown last night before today's final session in Auckland.
Tourism Dunedin chief executive Hamish Saxton also spoke at yesterday's Dunedin session, about visitor expectations for the future and the benefit of linking into TNZ's international branding.
He said about 287,000 Chinese visitors were expected to visit Dunedin in 2016 as the market continued to grow.
"People coming down to see us generally have more money and are spending more, because they stay in New Zealand longer than those in the country for a few days at Auckland or Rotorua," he said.
Completion of the Forsyth Barr Stadium meant Dunedin was also a major player in New Zealand's domestic business tourism, and the South Island's best destination for major sporting and cultural events, Mr Saxton said.
