Cashing in on the China-New Zealand Year of Tourism

Friday, 28 September 2018

The Terracotta Warriors exhibition at Te Papa is one of a number of events associated with the China-New Zealand Year of Tourism.

The 2019 China-New Zealand Year of Tourism will be launched next month at the opening gala performance of a musical comedy about a New York divorcee who falls for a handsome Maori tour guide.

The $8m City of 100 Lovers is slated to be a permanent fixture at Auckland's SkyCity Theatre, aiming to wow both locals and overseas tourists in a show big on Kiwi culture and places.

Quite what Chinese visitors will make of the story line, which includes a wealthy American wanting to build a hotel on a pristine New Zealand beach, remains to be seen, but it will be the first of a string of events associated with the 'year of tourism' announced during an official visit from Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in 2017.

The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has budgeted about $1m for the year – half of that going towards the Terracotta Warriors exhibition at Te Papa – and describes it as more about building and strengthening relationships than financial gain.

*Chinese Kiwis spend $315m a year exploring their new home

Each year 28 million trips are year are booked on travel website Fliggy and listing on it is expected to help smaller tourism operators to win bookings from Chinese visitors.

* Families parachute together as Chinese tourists leave their comfort zones

* Winning over big spending Chinese millennials**

That said, the tourism industry is hoping it will raise New Zealand's profile in China, helping attract higher value visitors as opposed to the cheap shopping tours which once dominated the inbound Chinese market.

MBIE has forecast China will overtake Australia as our largest tourist market by spend, reaching just over $3b annually by 2024.

More than 100,000 Chinese still come here each year on group tours, but they have been overtaken by free independent travellers who now make up almost 40 per cent of tourists from China.

New Zealand-based China Travel Service brought 35,000 Chinese visitors here last year and chief executive Lisa Li says the year of tourism is a good opportunity to cement our reputation as a premiere destination.

Providing value for money is hugely important and price increases for hotels and activities are proving challenging as younger tech-savvy visitors do their homework.

Some of the more than 6000 China Amway staff who visited Queenstown on an incentive travel trip fill the Coronet Peak base station.

'They do good research before their trip, they do compare New Zealand with other destinations, they compare New Zealand region by region, and they compare hotels and attractions.'

Li is involved in organising the Xiyangyang Lifestyle & Travel Expo in Auckland next month and is expecting 17,000 ethnic Chinese living in New Zealand to attend with the intention of buying travel packages and activity vouchers for friends and relatives planning trips here.

She says New Zealand Chinese are very influential in terms of spreading the word to visitors about some of our lesser known scenic gems.

'I do reckon it is a really tough job to persuade them to do to less popular places that are not known.

'Last year we had people who we could not get accommodation for in places like Queenstown or Lake Tekapo, so they chose another [country].'

Chinese arrivals into Christchurch Airport were up 25 per cent last year, about twice the growth of other airports.

The airport's trade development manager Scott Callaway says that with increased capacity on China Southern flights, they are in a good position to take advantage of the extra profile something like the China-New Zealand Year of Tourism offers.

The airport company's South store on popular Chinese travel website Fliggy (flying piggy) will also open up the Chinese market for smaller tourism operators who would not normally be able to afford this level of online presence.

Project director Ken Freer says the store will go live by the end of October with about 30 tourism products, and the aim is to have 100 on the site in the first 12 months.

Putting together packages easily booked via a mobile phone would encourage visitors to venture into different regions.

'They might look at Akaroa and think, 'gee that looks nice, but how do I do it?'

'Our bundle for Akaroa could include transport from Christchurch city, a couple of accommodation options, a trip to an alpaca farm, a tour with Black Cat cruises, maybe a meal, and transport back to Christchurch.

'That makes it really easy for the Chinese consumer to think, 'yes, I'll go there,' click, and buy,' says Freer.

Queenstown scored between $35m and $40m worth of business from the 6000-plus China Amway staff who visited earlier this year on an incentive trip to reward top company performers.

Destination Queenstown chief executive Graham Budd says the success of that event has set them up well to attract further incentive travellers from China and Asia, and that is something they will pursue when a delegation of tourism businesses and officials visit China next month in the lead up to the year of tourism.

Despite the large size of the Amway groups, they arrived in manageable 'waves' and were far from being 'mass' tourism.

With all their expenses paid for by the company, incentive travellers spent up large on shopping and discretionary activities, Budd says.