Christchurch hospo business have fingers crossed extra summer flights make up for dire winter

Wednesday, 29 November 2017

After a lean winter the Christchurch hospitality industry has its fingers crossed that more direct international flights over the summer will help kick start the city's visitor market.

Christchurch Airport expects at least 1.8 million passengers over the peak summer months, more than 200,000 of them international visitors, about 10,000 up on last year.

Cathay Pacific's first Hong Kong to Christchurch direct flight touches down on on Saturday, adding to other airlines' extra services from Guangzhou, Singapore and Perth.

Tourism businesses say the real challenge will be breaking the 'fly and flee' mentality and persuading arriving visitors to stay in Christchurch, instead of landing and leaving for points north and south.

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Hospitality NZ Canterbury branch president Peter Morrison said after a dismal winter, the extra flights were welcome and forward bookings were looking good.

'We really need a good summer to make up for a terrible winter, it's probably the worst since before the earthquake.

'People involved in the rebuild – insurance people, architects, builders – instead of staying three or four nights a week, they were only staying one night or coming once a fortnight.'

Morrison said failure to deliver the metro sports facility and convention centre on time had taken a toll because such facilities helped push up trade in the off season.

Motel sector spokesman Bob Pringle said sports teams were big users of motels so further delays to the sports centre were disappointing.

However, bookings for the summer were promising and would help make up for a slower Cup and Show Week.

'Most motels found it quiet this year, you could get beds most nights in Cup Week this year.'

The worry was that visitors would continue to 'bounce' straight out of the city, Pringle said, and it took time for inbound tour operators to adjust itineraries to account for the reopening of State Highway 1 north of Kaikōura.

Phil Leslie, who manages the All Stars Inn, also heads industry group Backpacker and Adventure Tourism Christchurch (BATCH) and said the prolonged closure of the coast road had hit lodges hard.

Ridgeline Adventures owner Mark Orbell says Alipay allows customers to make payments out on the road.

'This winter was as bad as I've ever seen.'

Having backpacker buses resume the Christchurch, Kaikōura, Picton route would help a lot, and he said tourism promotion agency ChristchurchNZ had done a good job at attempting to overcome the negative perception of the city on social media.

Christchurch Airport chef commercial officer aeronautical Justin Watson said the airport had enjoyed 'a strong winter' and total international and domestic arrivals were up 12 per cent for the year.

'These visitors are coming to Christchurch but they're not necessarily going into the city.'

Watson said the airport had teamed up with Tourism New Zealand and ChristchurchNZ to promote the city to Australians as a base to explore Canterbury and the West Coast.

It would include a special deal where visitors could fly to the West Coast for a day trip to the glaciers.

Although Australia was by far the region's largest overseas visitor market, Chinese arrivals had risen 13 per cent over the past 12 months.

In the two years since China Southern began flying direct from Guangzhou, Chinese made up 30,000 or the 120,000 passengers carried.

Chinese New Year is a favourite time for Asian holiday makers, and next year it is in mid February, unlike this year when it fell at the end of January.

Watson said the later date would spread the load. 'It doesn't sit in the peak season for Europeans, Germans and Kiwis.'

EASY PEASY PAYMENTS

Watson said Christchurch businesses could make the most of the Chinese market by offering payment systems such as WeChat pay and Alipay, widely used by 520 million Chinese who often did not have standard credit cards.

So far 112 South Island businesses had joined Alipay through a partnership between parent company Alibaba and Christchurch Airport, which was assisting with translations into Mandarin.

Mark Orbell, who runs four-wheel-drive tours from Wanaka, signed up two weeks ago and got his first Alipay booking from a Beijing family a couple of days later.

He said customers were sent a QR code that they scanned into their phone and the payment was processed electronically.

'We get the money the next day; you're not storing credit card details so there's no security issue, and it's half the commission of a credit card, so it's very convenient for both parties.'

Watson said Alipay also told users where to find businesses accepting Alipay.

'If I'm a Chinese visitor arriving into the city wanting to go to a restaurant I can look at my Alipay app for restaurants with Alipay, I can check menus and social reviews from other Chinese.

'It also takes away the language barrier issues a retailer trying to transact with a Chinese visitor might have.'