FTA upgrades expected to boost Chinese tourist flows to New Zealand

Chinese tourists in New Zealand [Photo:Chinanew.com]

As China and New Zealand continue working on upgrading their 2008 Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the tourism industry in New Zealand is expecting a boom in the future.

A record 422,000 Chinese tourists came to New Zealand over the past year. While the annual growth rate has slowed to 14%, tourism officials in New Zealand are confident about the future.

"The outlook is very, very positive, and we are very committed to China as a long-term opportunity. The encouragement of people-to-people contacts is essentially what tourism is all about so, yes, an upgraded FTA will be good for tourism and we welcome it," said David Craig, Asia Manager of Tourism New Zealand.

Sichuan Airlines will become the seventh Chinese carrier to launch a New Zealand service when it starts direct flights from Chengdu in June. Air New Zealand also operates ten weekly flights to Shanghai during peak seasons and welcomes the competition.

"The more Chinese airlines that come to New Zealand, organically, the more promotion of New Zealand as an outbound destination in China, so in some ways it helps to stimulate the market," said Cam Wallace, Chief Revenue Officer of Air New Zealand.

The latest tourism growth forecasts predict that the number of Chinese visitors coming to New Zealand will double to more than 900,000 by 2022, and China will overtake Australia as the source of the highest tourist spending in New Zealand.

Auckland's economic development agency hopes the Chinese visitors keep coming back with more business investment made in New Zealand.

"Those people may come here in the first instance as tourists, but they come back a second time as an investor, or as a migrant, or as parents of international students. We want that tourism to grow, but it would be great if that tourism isn't just holiday makers, but it's actually business people," said Brett O'Riley, Chief Executive at Auckland Tourism and Economic Development.

Wealthy Chinese tourists are staying longer and spending more. It's estimated that tourist flows from China will contribute more than five billion dollars to the economy within six years, and the challenge is to attract more high-value tourism.

Since the FTA was reached in 2008, bilateral trade between China and New Zealand has increased nearly threefold.

The first round of negotiations on upgrading the FTA will be held in the first half of this year.