With borders open Chinese tourists can travel again. Photo / AP
With borders open Chinese tourists can travel again. Photo / AP
New Zealand’s stand on Covid-19 testing for Chinese arrivals has put this country in a good light with travellers, a specialist in the China tourism market says.
China Travel Service managing director Lisa Li said New Zealand’s decision not to require a negative test had been well received in whatwas Aotearoa’s second biggest source of visitors before the pandemic.
“On social media you see posts everywhere. They respect New Zealand’s attitude of fairness,” she said.
“Again this shows Kiwi hospitality. This is something that is already appreciated by Chinese people - it has been very positive.”
Following the opening of China’s borders early this month, New Zealand decided not to follow the lead of many other countries which required a negative test for Chinese visitors. But the Government here said a public health assessment concluded visitors from China would not contribute significantly to the number of cases in the country.
Li said this would help rebuild the China market for New Zealand.
Before Covid, China was New Zealand’s second-largest market by arrivals, comprising 11 per cent of total arrivals which totalled 3.9 million in the year to November 2019. Chinese visitors spent $1.7 billion, 15 per cent of all visitor spend. Of that, $333m was spent in the regions.
There had been a trickle of Chinese visitors before the country abruptly dropped its Covid-zero stance and opened its borders on January 8. Li said that since then the number of new bookings had been low but she expected a steady build-up with numbers increasing strongly from March and April.
Following trends in other countries which reopened much earlier, she said the Chinese domestic market was booming first as people caught up with friends and relatives. Leisure travellers were now heading to places closer to home such as Hong Kong and Thailand before travelling in big numbers farther afield to countries such as New Zealand.
There were limited airline seats to New Zealand and prices were high although this wouldn’t deter the first wave of visitors, expected to be more wealthy smaller groups of travellers who weren’t so price-sensitive, said Li.
Managing director of China Travel Service, Lisa Li. Photo / Stephen Parker.
“Even though the Chinese economic growth has been slowing, our targeted market sector is middle class with higher education, higher income and better savings have kept in reasonably good shape.”
More airline capacity is coming.
China Southern Airlines had most services to mainland China before the pandemic and while currently operating two flights a week between Auckland and Guangzhou, it will increase this to four times a week from January 26. This will increase to daily flights from March 27.
Most bookings so far have been those visiting friends and relatives (VFR) and students. There are a small number of tourists on board, with these passengers having had their multi-entry Visa pre-Covid.
Air New Zealand is also stepping up capacity between Auckland and Shanghai, the first of its passenger routes to be suspended when the pandemic hit in early 2020.
While it has been operating a limited service for freight and some passengers throughout the pandemic, it is now flying three times a week to Shanghai and from February 4 will fly four services a week.
“China’s swift reopening of its border after nearly three years of isolation has meant Kiwis with family in China have jumped to secure tickets home for Chinese New Year,” the airline said.
China Eastern is also increasing its capacity between Auckland and Shanghai.
Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) expects direct airline connectivity out of China looks to be at least 50 per cent of 2019 by April.
TNZ chief executive René de Monchy said the agency undertook activity in China market over the past two years to help keep preference for New Zealand as a destination strong.
“As air connectivity gradually recovers Tourism New Zealand will increase our campaign and trade activity to encourage this into bookings to capture the pent-up demand for travel in the market.”
China Travel Service arranged bookings for up to 40,000 Chinese tourists before Covid-19, about 10 per cent of total visitors, but Li said it was hard to forecast when those big numbers would come back.
But there is a big boost looming later this year with Amway China planning an event similar to that in 2018 when more than 6000 of its top sellers descended on Queenstown, boosting the economy by around $40m.
