The Asian Tour will become a full co-sanctioning partner of the New Zealand Open following an initial collaboration earlier this year which resulted in 10 Asian Tour members featuring in the Open in Arrowtown.
The Open, which will once again be played at Millbrook and The Hills, will include 30 members from the Asian Tour in the next two years and prize money earned from the tournament will count towards the Asian Tour's Order of Merit race.
The Open, which will be broadcast live on the Asian Tour's television platform globally as part of the expanded partnership, will feature a minimum prize fund of $NZ1.1million.
It will continue to incorporate a pro-am format that brings together a blend of professional and amateur players.
The format has 144 professionals joined by 144 amateurs who pay a fee to play in the tournament.
New Zealand Open tournament chairman John Hart said he believed the expanded arrangement with the Asian Tour would drive the tournament's growth and mark the tournament as the pre-eminent pro-am tournament in the Asia Pacific region.
The Japan Tour would continue to send members to the Open.
The sanctioning of the tournament by the Asian Tour would give the tournament greater broadcast coverage in Asia and also help entice some top Asian players.
This year several top young South Koreans made the journey to Arrowtown.
The winner of the New Zealand Open will get exemptions to tournaments on both the Asian Tour and the Australasian tour.
The tournament this year took place two weeks later than is proposed for next year and was won by New Zealander Michael Hendry, who ended a 14-year drought for New Zealand golfers at the Open.
The Open tournament in Queenstown clashes with the World Golf Cadillac Championship, set down for Miami, starting on March 3.
Hendry (37) is a chance to head to the tournament in Miami as the top two qualifiers in the Australasian Order of Merit automatically qualify for the WGC event.
It is a lucrative tournament with no cut and even the bottom place-getters in the 70-strong field are guaranteed more than $US40,000 ($NZ55,000) in prize money.
Hendry is second on the Australasian Tour behind West Australian Brett Rumford.
