These are lean times for tourism. One of the few bright spots on the horizon is China, where increasing numbers of wealthy residents are looking to visit other countries now that they are permitted to do so. New Zealand is competing with 140 other destinations to attract them and appears to be doing quite well.
Heavy investment by airlines and airports has seen Chinese visitor numbers grow from about 30,000 in 2000 to around 180,000 this year. The Chinese do not stay long - an average of six days, 10 fewer than the average overall - but their total spending while here exceeds that of British visitors, making China already our second largest tourism market, behind Australia.
China's largest airline, Guangzhou-based China Southern Airlines, began daily flights to Auckland a year ago and its promotion of this destination has been credited with much of the growth. It is bringing 250 Chinese travel agents to Auckland next month to see the region's attractions and meet business leaders.
What a pity then, that the Government has done a deal with China Southern to relax visa requirements for its frequent flyer card holders, raising questions in Parliament last week. In itself, the deal sounds innocuous - passengers wealthy enough to be frequent flyers will not face the usual requirement to show they have sufficient funds to support themselves - but Immigration New Zealand should not be doing this sort of deal with a single airline no matter how beneficial it has been. Immigration Minister Nathan Guy said the visitors would still need a visa to enter and still face health and character checks. But the deal has worried the department's Intelligence Risk and Integrity Division which is annoyed that it was not consulted until the discussions were well advanced.
