Tauranga Mayor Greg Brownless has said no to an invitation to dinner with former US President Barack Obama.

Brownless turned down the invitation because of prior commitments, Fairfax reported.

The Mayor had a long-standing commitment to attend a citizenship ceremony in Tauranga.

READ MORE: Barack Obama arrives in New Zealand

Mayors of Auckland, Wellington, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Christchurch, Nelson and Napier accepted invitations to a banquet with Obama in Auckland tomorrow.

Obama arrived in New Zealand early this morning for his first visit to the country.

The 44th president of the United States of America landed in a private Gulfstream jet at Auckland International Airport at 12.13am today after two days in Singapore.

His itinerary includes golf with former New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, experiencing a powhiri and hongi, a meeting with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and a 1000-guest banquet dinner.

National Party leader Simon Bridges will attend Obama's dinner on Thursday night, saying the novelty factor of meeting a US president was the drawcard.

"I'm not saying I'm a devotee but I've never met a US president and so I'm pretty excited. I'm looking forward to hopefully getting a chance to briefly meet him," he said.

However, the invite list did raise some eyebrows - while some backbenchers are on it Trade Minister David Parker did not make the cut despite the trade and export focus of the NZ-US.

Parker's lack of an invite was possibly an oversight or because of political sensitivities around the TPP, which Obama had championed and brought the US in to before Trump withdrew from it.