'Significant' tourism cancellations in wake of coronavirus outbreak

Tuesday, 28 January 2020

Te Puia chief Tim Cossar said the group tour market from China is now in effect 'non existent.'

One of New Zealand's leading tourism attractions expects to take a financial hit 'in the hundreds of thousands of dollars' in the next couple of months alone due to the coronavirus.

Tim Cossar, the chief executive of Rotorua's Te Puia, said that in the wake of moves by the Chinese Government to suspend Chinese tourism bureau travel, 'the group travel market out of China is non-existent'.

Medical workers in protective gear talk with a woman suspected of being ill with a coronavirus at a community health station in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province, where the virus is believed to have originated from.

Cossar said typically at this time of the year Te Puia would draw tens of thousands of Chinese visitors a month.

'There's been cancellations and they're significant for a business of our type.'

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He said it was significant, too, that the virus scare has occurred at peak tourism season.

'It's difficult to make changes to your business model now,' he said.

Cossar was speaking to Stuff just three days after three members of a tour group were checked for the virus at Rotorua Hospital, though later found to have no symptoms that would indicate infection.

Cossar said he supported the travel suspension, and stressed a number of times that health considerations outweighed his financial concerns. He said he believed information about the virus was 'going to our sector'.

However, Buried Village operations manager Amanda McGrath told Stuff they had received no information 'at all' about the virus.

'We'd read Rotorua Hospital had some potential cases. Being New Zealand's biggest tourist area you'd think there would be some communication.

A spokesperson for the Hobbiton movie set also revealed that while have received no 'formal briefing' on the virus, they have been emailed updates from the likes of Tourism NZ, Destination Rotorua and Tourism Industry Aotearoa.

Michelle Templer, the chief executive of Destination Rotorua, also said they had been briefing the sector.

'We have circulated an update to the local industry, which includes a fact sheet and advice from the Ministry of Health, which we are recommending local businesses implement to keep their people and visitors safe.'

Templer conceded the suspension of tour groups from China would impact Rotorua in the short term.

'China has always been an important international market for Rotorua and remains a key part of our long term visitor strategy,' she said.

'China is the fourth highest source of international visitors to Rotorua, with Chinese tourists last year contributing nearly $40m to the Rotorua economy. While we are seeing more of the high-value free independent travel visitor coming to Rotorua in place of large tour groups, group travel remains part of the mix.'

Tourism New Zealand chief executive Stephen England said the impact of the coronavirus on the country's tourism sector was unknown at this stage, 'but we expect that there will be a decline globally in short term arrivals from China'.

'The situation is still evolving but we are hearing reports of tours being cancelled,' he said.

Tourism New Zealand also revealed around 90 per cent of Chinese visitors at this time of the year would have come via a new suspended Chinese tourism bureau.

'So the suspension has the potential to have a significant impact on the New Zealand industry and economy.'