Tourism boost from direct China flights

Michelle Lee and Ed Sims celebrate with fortune cookies. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

Air New Zealand says its direct flights to Shanghai could double the number of Chinese tourists visiting this country.

The airline - which today begins selling seats for the new service - also has plans to dramatically increase the number of flights on the route.

Starting from November 6 it will run three 777 flights a week up to Shanghai.

But that was a relatively conservative start and those planes would be flying close to capacity, said group general manager Ed Sims.

"When we fill those three we will look to increase capacity to four, six or even daily flights," Sims said

In July 2004 Air New Zealand started the San Francisco route with three flights a week and less than 18 months later that service is daily.

While Air New Zealand is expecting some growth in demand from New Zealanders curious to visit the ultra-modern Chinese metropolis, the real growth will come from the Shanghai end. It is expected that about two-thirds of seats on the route will be filled by Chinese travellers.

Air New Zealand was currently recruiting Shanghai-based cabin crew so it could ensure there were adequate numbers of Mandarin speakers on all flights, Sims said.

It was crucial to cater to the needs of the Chinese customers and that would also be reflected in the inflight menus and the entertainment.

"Awareness of New Zealand in Shanghai is still at a very low level," Sims said.

But where there was awareness, there was a huge amount of excitement and interest in the natural beauty of the country, and the lifestyle.

There were already about 130,000 Chinese travelling into New Zealand indirectly each year, he said.

"Even being conservative I think having a direct flight will double those numbers in a relatively short space of time."

Shanghai is the epicentre of the Chinese economic boom and has a rapidly growing middle class as well as some extremely wealthy citizens.

In partnership with Tourism NZ, the airline will launch a targeted marketing campaign to promote the country as a hip destination.

Air NZ plans to spend up to $4 million on the marketing campaign, with Tourism NZ likely to spend about half that amount.

In a city of 17 million it was important to capture the attention of the right people, said international marketing manager Michelle Lee.

One key group was the xiao (little) bourgeoisie. "Basically the Chinese version of yuppies."

Return tickets to Shanghai will cost $1949 compared with a Hong Kong return price of $1549.

However Air NZ will offer discounted prices on both routes for the launch period.