Year of tourism delay a worry
A simple scheduling reshuffle or an official snub by the Chinese government?
The business community has mixed feelings about the postponement of a much-vaunted launch of the Chinese New Zealand Year of Tourism that was supposed to take place next week.
Although it was never regarded as being likely to bring hordes more Chinese visitors, there is concern that a ‘‘rescheduling’’ of the launch could be a political reaction to the New Zealand Government’s rejection of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.
New Zealand China Council executive director Stephen Jacobi said it was a potentially worrying sign of the tone of the relationship between the two countries.
‘‘After all, this year of tourism was something that was announced during the visit of Premier Li Keqiang, so it was a fairly high-level thing.
‘‘It’s much more of a concern than turning back the Air New Zealand plane the other day, which was obviously an administrative snafu,’’ Jacobi said.
He suggested New Zealand should wait to see what transpired following assurances from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment that the postponement was just due to ‘‘changes of schedule on the Chinese side’’.
Tourism Export Council chief executive Judy Chen said the Chinese government had the ability to influence outbound travel behaviour and the business environment in general, and operators would not like to see New Zealand affected in the way Canada had been following the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the request of the United States.
Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Chris Roberts downplayed the launch postponement and said there was still a calendar of events set to go for the year.
‘‘China’s primary motivation with all these Year of Tourism events they have around the world is to encourage more visitation to China; it is not going to have a significant impact on visitors coming here,’’ Roberts said.