Rotorua retailers up against tour leaders

Rotorua souvenir shop owner Jack Rose was delighted when a young Taiwanese tourist came into his store last week and chose $800 of sheepskins, slippers and lanolin.

The girl, who was on a Taiwanese tour, said she would come back the next morning to make the purchase.

Instead, she sent a messenger, who told Mr Rose that the girl's tour guide had forbidden her to buy anything from his shop.

Mr Rose refuses to pay shopping commissions to tour operators because he considers it unethical, but like other souvenir shop owners, the decision is costing him business from Asian tour parties.

"They're chased along to their own outlets where they [the operators] get kickbacks," he said.

Marnie Grant, of Rotorua arts and craft store Best of Maori Tourism, said tours sold in Asia often included prepaid vouchers for tourists to use at particular shops.

"They're not spending their money in New Zealand. They're spending their money in their home countries."

Shopping commissions are not illegal, or new, but souvenir shop owners say Asian tour guides are resorting to verbal or physical force to keep tourists away from stores that do not pay them.

The problem is the same at attractions such as Te Puia, which encompasses Whakarewarewa Geothermal Valley and the Maori Arts and Craft Institute.

Chief executive Andrew Te Whaiti said Chinese tour parties were instructed before they arrived not to buy anything at Te Puia. He said if they tried, they were ushered out by the tour guides.

However, a woman with 12 years' experience in the tourism industry said the guides were not to blame. The woman, who did not want to be named, said they were paid a pittance and relied on commissions to make a living.

Several Asian owners of souvenir shops in Rotorua and Queenstown also viewed commissions differently.

They were open about the fact they paid them and said tourists from China, Korea and Japan liked to shop at stores where their native languages were spoken.

The issue is one of several to be discussed at a Tourism New Zealand summit in China next week.

Chief executive George Hickton said Chinese operators were bringing tourists to New Zealand for as little as US$35 ($51) a day by using shabby accommodation and bypassing major attractions. The operators made their profits from shopping commissions.

Commissions had been identified as a cause of dissatisfaction among Chinese visitors, who resented paying high prices for souvenirs available cheaper at other shops.

Mr Hickton said it was important to improve the situation before growth in the Chinese market, which was New Zealand's sixth-biggest and was 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.