Cheap tours for Chinese a worry

Chinese tourists are leaving New Zealand with little to remember except views of farm animals and geysers from behind fences.

Tourism New Zealand has expressed concern about tourists returning home unhappy because of cheap tours run by Chinese operators.

Chief executive George Hickton told an Inbound Tour Operators conference in Nelson yesterday that Chinese tour operators were bringing tourists to New Zealand for as little as US$35 ($51) a day.

"It is not surprising that these visitors are dissatisfied.

"Some of them are being put in accommodation without windows, prevented from visiting shops of their choice, and only allowed to peer over a fence at geysers."

He said the operators focused on making profits from shopping commissions.

Tourism New Zealand has organised a summit in Shanghai next month, involving representatives of New Zealand's Inbound Tour Operators Council, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Tourism, airlines and Chinese tour operators.

Mr Hickton said it was important to address the problem before the Chinese market grew.

China is New Zealand's sixth biggest tourist market and is expected to grow to number four in the next five years.

Last year, 84,000 Chinese visitors came to New Zealand, 60 per cent for tourist purposes.

Rotorua was a popular destination for many.

Neville Nicholson general manager of Skyline Skyrides, which operates a gondola, restaurant and luge in the city, said many Chinese tours skipped well-known attractions.

Visitors were instead taken to the lakefront to feed ducks or to peer at farm animals over fences.

Chief executive of Whakarewarewa, Andrew Te Whaiti , said if Chinese tour groups did visit, they stayed for little more than an hour.

He said tourists needed time to enjoy a place so they would go home and recommend it to family and friends.