Cancellations grow as Chinese travel restrictions over virus start to hit NZ tourism

Monday, 27 January 2020

China has curbed travel and stepped up screening to try and curb the spread of the virus which emerged in December.

The New Zealand tourism industry is preparing to take a major hit as the coronavirus leads to a flood of cancellations by Chinese visitors.

Tourism New Zealand chief executive Stephen England Hall said only time would reveal the full impact of the Chinese Government's decision to suspend all overseas tour group travel to prevent spread of the disease over Chinese New Year.

He said the ban also affected independent travellers who had booked flight and accommodation packages, but not those who had made their own online bookings.

'About 90 per cent of travellers this time last year from China would have come through a [Chinese] tourism bureau and been impacted through this ban, so it has the potential to have a significant impact on our industry and economy.'

More than 400,000 Chinese tourists visited New Zealand last year and tourism operators heavily dependent on this market are deeply worried about the impact of the coronarvirus.

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England-Hall said areas traditionally popular with Chinese New Year visitors - such as Queenstown, Rotorua and Milford Sound - would be hardest hit by the decision to halt tours.

One New Zealand hotel chain has already lost bookings from about 800 Chinese guests after 20 tour groups cancelled over the weekend.

General manager of the Scenic Hotel Group, Brendan Taylor, said the outbreak of the virus would have a dramatic impact

'The timing of it would not have been worse.'

'Being Chinese New Year the impact is pretty large on everybody.'

Hundreds of thousands of dollars were at stake and there were questions over whether to try and recoup cancellation fees given that the edict to suspend travel came from the Chinese Government.

'The likelihood of us getting insurance cover would be minimal.

'We don't want to close the market off to the Chinese when it comes back.

'The other issue is that the Chinese wholesalers have been cut off at the knees with the directive and they are going to struggle financially to survive.

Chair of the NZ Chinese Travel and Tourism Association Simon Cheung said his vehicle rental business had so far received five cancellations of bookings from small groups, but he was hopeful they would rebook in a month or so.

'It's not about New Zealand, it's about what has happened in China. They will come eventually.'

In some cases group members were unable to leave because their home areas had been locked down as part of infection control, but others wanted to stay home because they were simply concerned about the risk of travel during the virus outbreak.

Hospitality outlets are also grappling with how to protect staff and guests in the event of cases.

Taylor said that last week they had difficulty getting information from the Ministry of Health on how to handle anyone showing signs of the illness.

The company, which has 17 hotels, was instituting measures last used during the SARs virus to help protect staff and guests from the new virus which is now thought to be infectious for some time before symptoms show.

Operations director for Sudima Hotels Les Morgan said that having two hotels at airports they were mindful of the infection risk, so they had stocks of face masks for use if required, and hand sanitiser was widely available.

He plans plans to call an emergency meeting of his leadership team to consider information from the Ministry of Health and tourism Industry Aotearoa.

Cheung said members of his group running bed & breakfast accommodation had also expressed concern about protection because they lived in close proximity with their guests.