Erica Stanford brainstorming ideas to bring back Chinese tourists

Immigration Minister Erica Stanford is bringing ideas to the Prime Minister next week. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Immigration Minister Erica Stanford will next week bring ideas to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to encourage Chinese tourists to return to New Zealand.

Stanford described the Government as “on our foils” on the topic of immigration, and noted visitor visas from China, the type typically used by tourists, were being processed in 8 days.

“That’s not to say there isn’t more to do and I’m putting some ideas to the Prime Minister next week.”

Stanford made the remarks in the context of figures showing Chinese tourists had been especially slow to return to New Zealand following the pandemic. Visa data suggests the all-important Chinese New Year period did not see significant, if any, growth in arrivals from last year — in fact, visa application data suggests the market may get even worse, with the number of visa applications and approvals both declining on last year.

Tourism NZ statistics show tourist arrivals from China were 53.3% of 2019 levels, making it one of the slowest-recovering markets for tourism. That compares to other significant markets such as the US and Australia, which have fared better, with arrivals at 94.4% and 95.1% of 2019 levels respectively.

Labour immigration spokesman Phil Twyford said the figures show the consequences of the Government’s decision to hike visa fees and the international visa levy. The visa fee hike was included as a way of paying for National’s tax cuts, contributing about $133m a year to the cost of the cuts.

Twyford argued the visa fee hikes that have contributed that money have come at the cost of the tourism sector, where the hikes have done little to help an already sluggish recovery.

“The Government was so desperate to claw back revenue by hiking up fees in almost every imaginable part of the economy, but they’ve shot themselves in the foot because out of the other side of their mouth they say they’ve got to have more visitors here and talking up tourism as if it’s their salvation.

“They were so keen to hike up processing fees for visas that it looks from the evidence that it has had a chilling effect on the rebound in visitors from China,” he said.

Figures supplied by Mbie show tourism operators are unlikely to experience a material recovery over Chinese New Year.

Between September 2023 and January 2024, 115,591 Chinese nationals applied for a visitor visa and 112,361 had their visas approved.

Between September 2024 and January 2025, those numbers had fallen to 108,795 applications and 106,623 approvals.

Jeannie Melville, MBIE deputy chief operating officer told the Herald that with the “expected influx of visa applications” over the new year, Mbie “encouraged people applying for a visitor visa to travel in the New Year, including the Chinese and Lunar New Year, to submit their applications by mid-November to ensure their visa could be processed in time”.

“The fees and levies for visas increased from October 1, and we saw an increase in applications across visa categories, including visitor visas, prior to this coming into effect. This saw people apply earlier than they may have done previously,” Melville said.

The cause of sluggish Chinese numbers are complex, and are likely to be a mix of economic factors in China itself, which is experiencing a large economic slowdown, and changes on the New Zealand side, which may make this country less attractive.

Industry sources have told the Herald changes such as a hike in visitor visa fees, a trebling in the international visa levy to $100, and advice to apply early, may be off putting to Chinese tourists, who can be price sensitive and prefer to plan travel closer to the time of departure than other tourists.

Stanford said the Government was not looking at reverting to the old system, which allowed Chinese tourists to apply for a visa in Mandarin. That system was enabled by China-based processing centres. These have now gone in favour of local processing, which, Stanford said, allowed processing much faster, sometimes in just eight days.

“The whole world asks for documentation in English… the reason we used to accept documents in Mandarin was because we had officers offshore in Beijing and Shanghai. We don’t have them anymore.

“The reason we’re able to process visas in eight days is because we have them in English,” Stanford said.

One potential fix is to include Chinese nationals in New Zealand’s visa waiver scheme. The visa waiver scheme allows tourists from places such as the United States and European Union to simply arrive at the border having filled out a pre-departure form, rather than apply for a visa upfront.

Stanford said including China in New Zealand’s visa waiver scheme was not on her work programme.

The challenge with welcoming China into that scheme is that Chinese nationals make up a significant proportion of people who claim asylum on arriving in New Zealand, which is much easier to do if you enter the country without a traditional visa.

Tourism Minister Louise Upston said China would “play a significant part” in growing tourism back to pre-Covid levels.

She said she had “heard concerns about the current visitor visa process from China”.

“As Minister of Immigration, Erica Stanford and I are working closely together. We’re currently seeking advice on actions around settings as it’s a priority to make it easier for Chinese tourists to return,” she said.

Thomas Coughlan is Deputy Political Editor and covers politics from Parliament. He has worked for the Herald since 2021 and has worked in the press gallery since 2018.