KEY POINTS:
Tourism New Zealand is targeting Chinese visitors for the first time in a $5.6 million campaign beginning this month.
The 100 per cent Pure New Zealand campaign will focus on television, internet and billboard advertising in Shanghai with the first blitz starting on April 21 followed by a second in November.
Tourism New Zealand chief executive George Hickton said Shanghai was a key market because it had the most direct flights to New Zealand and a high number of middle-class Chinese with disposable incomes.
China surpassed Japan as New Zealand's fourth-largest tourism market by visitor numbers in January with more than 122,000 visitors in the past year.
The campaign will focus on New Zealand's position as the youngest country to be formed and capitalise on idyllic images of Kiwi life.
Hickton said the challenge was to increase Chinese visitor spending and provide better quality experiences. Chinese visitors spent $337 million in 2007 compared with our largest market, Australia, which spent $1.46 billion. The average stay for a Chinese person is just two to four days compared with an overall average of 20 days a person for all international tourists.
Hickton said this was a symptom of few direct flights to New Zealand from China and lack of information on New Zealand.
"Because for most of the time there have not been direct flights, they have tended to tack on a couple of days at the end of a trip to Australia or Hong Kong. We never had any money to direct towards China until now so they never had any information and tended to buy on price."
The result had been very poor offerings to Chinese visitors, which meant many spent their time on shopping tours and did not get to see the real New Zealand.
Tony McQuilkin, general manager of sales at South Island tourism operator Real Journeys, which has been active in the Chinese market, said the challenge was to get Chinese tourists to better understand quality and price.
"It's about getting the market to recognise that cheaper is not always better."
New licensing rules brought in at the end of last year mean that those authorised to bring Chinese visitors to New Zealand now have to provide at least three-star accommodation and show they will be taking visitors to recognised tourist attractions.
Tourism New Zealand expects Chinese visitor numbers to double to 260,000 by 2013.
