In recent years convention tourism has become an increasingly important aspect of the tourism industry. There is a noticeable lack of research in the area of convention tourism development. Convention tourism is distinct from other forms of tourism in that participants in conferences and conventions are business travellers rather than pleasure travellers. The main research issue of this thesis is to focus on the processes of convention tourism development in Christchurch. The research contains a number of aims. The first aim was to outline the characteristics of convention tourism in New Zealand and particularly Christchurch. This was achieved through a number of sources including statistics from the New Zealand Tourism Board, the Union of lnternational Associations and Ernst and Young. The second aim was to describe and analyse the patterns and processes of convention tourism development in Christchurch. This has been established through interviews with people involved in the industry and associated industries, as well as using historical data from newspapers and archives. The third aim was to use the processes of convention tourism development identified in Christchurch and develop a model of convention tourism development that may be applied to other locations The processes of convention tourism development in Christchurch are characterised by four different stages between 1965 and 1998. These stages were adapted to form a convention tourism development model which also has four stages: Foundation, Involvement, Development and Specialisation. There are a number of factors of change that facilitate the movement from stage to stage. These include greater levels of accessibility and an increase in the number of conventions. A significant aspect of the convention tourism development model is the stage of specialisation. Specialisation is a consequence of convention tourism development that could be linked to the broader processes of tourism development.