Aussie visitors love us, Chinese not so much

Australian visitors are helping to make up for the continued slide in many Asian tourist markets, particularly China.

Stats NZ said that if all cruise ship passengers were included, total visitor arrivals surpassed 4 million for the year to the end of September, up 94,300.

The number of visitors from Australia topped 1.5 million for the period. While American tourists were up 28,900, visitors from China, our second-largest market, dropped almost 40,000.

That was despite promotion of the China–New Zealand Year of Tourism, which drew to a close at the weekend with a ceremony in Guangzhou attended by Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis.

A calendar of more than 40 events went ahead after the programme got off to a messy start when Chinese officials postponed the opening ceremony at short notice, allegedly because of scheduling problems.

New Zealand Chinese Travel and Tourism Association chairman Simon Cheung said the timing of the Year of Tourism was unfortunate because of the combination of the Christchurch terror attack and nervousness about China’s economy.

But he is confident the downward trend can be arrested and said feedback indicated bookings from now until the Chinese New Year in late January were looking more promising.

‘‘I think we are past the worst point. November is crazy – cheaper airfares end in midNovember – so a lot of people want to come before that.’’

Tourism New Zealand director of commercial Rene de Monchy said the China–United States trade war had affected consumer confidence. However, outbound travel from China was still growing and Tourism NZ was finetuning its advertising to catch the ‘‘eyeballs’’ of holidaymakers.

Kiwi operators heavily dependent on the Chinese market will be hoping that works, according to Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Chris Roberts.

‘‘One area where we’re hearing some parts of the industry are struggling is in Rotorua . . . Those businesses used to having those Chinese tour buses through are certainly having some pain, and a reasonably significant reduction in the numbers they were getting – 10 per cent would not be uncommon for businesses to be down.’’

Whether total international visitor numbers will actually go into the red remains to be seen.

De Monchy said the mediumto long-term outlook was quite positive, but the slowdown in the holiday sector in the past six to nine months was a concern and reflected the competitive nature of the global tourism market.