Worrying cycle in China doubts

There are fears that speculation about Chinese government political interference in a tourism event could become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The tourism industry says there is no evidence that visitor numbers have been affected by the New Zealand Government decision to block Spark from using equipment produced by the Chinese manufacturer Huawei for its upcoming 5G network.

But the industry is worried continued conjecture about postponement of the official launch of the China New Zealand Year of Tourism could be damaging if it gathered momentum on social media which is a prime source of information for

Chinese travellers.

Tourism industry Aotearoa chief executive Chris

Roberts said a story on the

Global Times website, the English-language version of the People’s Daily

Chinese newspaper, was a case in point.

The Global Times quoted a Chinese traveller as saying he had cancelled a trip to New Zealand over our Government’s stance on Huawei.

‘‘We now have New Zealand media, reporting on Chinese media, reporting on the New Zealand media covering the issue. It’s a self-fulfilling cycle of concern.

‘‘I don’t think there is any likelihood of the tap of Chinese tourism suddenly being turned off, but we are in danger of creating an issue here, and creating a whole lot of negative sentiment in China and that could have an impact.’’

There are signs the market is slowing, but Tourism Export Council chief executive Judy Chen said there was no evidence that travellers were cancelling trips because of Huawei.

The softening in the market was related to the economic downturn in China and the higher cost of holidaying here, she said.

‘‘For 10 days you can go to five countries in Europe versus New Zealand and it’s two-thirds the price . . . that becomes the deciding factor, and they go there because it is much more affordable.’’

‘‘We are in danger of creating an issue here.’’ Tourism industry Aotearoa chief executive Chris Roberts