Extra flights for Korean tourists

By SIMON COLLINS

South Korea and New Zealand have agreed to increase flights between the countries to carry soaring Korean tourist numbers.

Officials are finalising what Korean Ambassador Chong Woo-seong described as a technical agreement after bilateral talks in Wellington on August 28-29.

"Certainly there will be an increase in air services," he said. But it would not be an "open skies" regime.

Tourism NZ chief executive George Hickton told the Korea-NZ Business Council in Auckland last week that restricted air services had prevented New Zealand from keeping up with Australia in tourist arrivals from Korea.

Korean tourist numbers coming to New Zealand have boomed in the past three years; Korea's economy powered ahead after the Asian crisis of 1998-99, rising 24.7 per cent in the year to August and making Korea New Zealand's fifth-largest source of visitors.

Numbers dropped from 108,266 in 1997 to just 17,686 in 1998, but reached 99,682 again in the year to last month and are expected to pass the 100,000 mark again in the next few days.

However, Air New Zealand abandoned services to Korea after the Asian crisis. Korean Air stopped flights to Christchurch and cut its Auckland-Seoul services to four a week.

As tourist numbers recovered, Korean Air has increased services. It ran 10 services a week during the past summer peak.

But LG Electronics managing director Michael Park told the meeting: "This is supposed to be the off-peak season and you can't get a seat."

He questioned Mr Hickton's projections showing that Korean arrivals would rise by only 20 per cent in the coming year.

"Korean working hours have been changed from six days to five days a week," Mr Park said.

"From my personal contacts, people are coming to New Zealand just within a three-day period.

"So I can expect much more growth, maybe for shorter-term stays."

Mr Hickton said he had kept the forecast to 20 per cent because of the limited air services.

"We haven't done as well as we could have. Australia has grown faster and the world has grown faster," he said.

"One reason for that less than adequate growth is that we only have one airline on the route.

"That has to be a key issue."

He added that he would like to see the service to Christchurch restored.

However, Air New Zealand's vice-president for international sales, Peter Elmsly, said Air NZ had no plans to return to Korea.

"We are always looking for the opportunities for growth, but it has got to be economically sustainable."