Chinese tourists big movers, industry says

Fiona Luhrs

China will overtake Japan as a source of visitors to New Zealand within four years, a Ministry of Tourism forecast says.

Total international visitor numbers are expected to increase from 2.4 million last year to 3.1 million in 2012, while the money they spend should grow from $6.5 billion to $10.1 billion.

Chinese visitor numbers will be the biggest mover, growing on average 14.5 per cent a year and totalling 226,000 by 2012.

This growth would be enough to displace Japan and rank China as the fourth-largest market, in terms of people, behind Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Tourism Industry Association New Zealand chief executive Fiona Luhrs said the release of the forecast was timely given that more than 350 industry representatives were meeting this week in Wellington.

"While the industry is still forecast to grow in the next five years, we are no longer seeing the double-digit growth of recent years," Luhrs said.

"With other challenges facing the industry, such as rising fuel costs, labour shortages and increasing competition from other international destinations, these latest figures will contribute to discussions at the conference about the future of our industry."

The Wellington conference would be used to discuss the update of the New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2010, which was being extended until 2015.

"These issues are all of deep importance to tourism in New Zealand," Luhrs said. "We need to jointly determine the issues that will impact on our industry and how we will manage them."

Spending by overseas tourists in Auckland is forecast to rise from $2.5 billion to $3.9 billion, Canterbury from $1.1 billion to $1.7 billion and Wellington from $533 million to $815 million.