Crowing about Year of the Rooster
Chinese New Year contributed to the record 381,100 visitors who arrived in January.
They included more than 54,000 Chinese, which was well up on Tourism New Zealand expectations.
Statistics New Zealand population statistics senior manager Peter Dolan said the 13,200 extra Chinese arrivals for January coincided with celebrations for the Chinese New Year which fell at the end of the month.
Annual visitors arrivals for the year to January reached 3.5 million, an 11 per cent rise.
Earth and Sky star gazing tours at Lake Tekapo are popular with Chinese visitors and general manager Margaret Munro said they were running four or five Mandarin or Cantonese language tours a day.
She estimated that in January between 4000 and 5000 Chinese made the day time drive up to the cafe and observatory on Mt John to enjoy the views.
Tekapo tourism operators had noticed a marked move away from group tours to independent travel by Chinese who liked to holiday in small groups.
‘‘Often they’ll travel with two or three families joining together and renting out a holiday homes’’.
Having Mandarin-speaking reception staff in the tour company’s Tekapo office also made a big difference to visitors, said Munro.
‘‘Word of mouth on Chinese social media gets around that there’s a place in the town where they can get help’’.
2017 is the Year of the Rooster which is regarded as a lucky bird because in Mandarin it is pronounced the same as the word ‘‘auspiciousness.’’
The Chinese market is now in TNZ’s top ‘‘tier’’, alongside Australia and the USA, meaning it gets more focus than other countries.
The UK, Germany and Japan are in tier two; India, Indonesia and Brazil tier three.
Chinese visitors are also big spenders with the annual total predicted to be more than $5.3b by 2022.
Migrant arrivals of 128,300 for the year also set a new record, up 5300 or 4 per cent, and Kiwis returning from across the Tasman were well represented.
‘‘About a fifth of all migrant arrivals were from Australia’’, Dolan said, ’’and almost two thirds of migrant arrivals from Australia were New Zealand citizens.’’
The net gain in migrants was 71,300.