Auckland Airport wants to attract rich Chinese tourists to New Zealand.
Auckland Airport General Manager Aeronautical Commercial Glenn Wedlock says China is a vital market for New Zealand and he expects future growth to be about 20 per cent per year.
He says the airport has a number of initiatives in place to promote New Zealand to Chinese tourists, including the Luxury New Zealand project and helping the tourist industry become equipped to cater for Chinese tourists with free workshops.
The initiatives are part of Auckland Airport’s Ambition 2020 which aims to showcase Luxury New Zealand to young wealthy Chinese, outlined at the TRENZ 2012 tourism conference in Queenstown on this week.
Speakers at the conference who supported the idea of marketing New Zealand to China included China tourism agency chief Pierre Gervois who runs China Elite Focus.
He says Chinese people love to travel, but because of China’s central location in the world they have numerous holiday options with similar flying times to choose from, including Auckland, London, Paris and New York.
“To compete, New Zealand needs to be less shy about marketing its premium offer and dare to sell to this affluent audience.”
Mr Gervois says super wealthy Chinese may not be interested in typical New Zealand holidays including camping and outdoor activities, instead wanting minimum $64,000 per week holiday packages.
“Only a relatively small number of Chinese can afford a long-haul holiday and those that can demand luxury over camping and outdoors holidays.”
He is partnering with Auckland Airport on the Luxury New Zealand project, which launched in May 2011, and says it has been successfully using social media to tap into the market.
“The feedback has been positive with many I’ve spoken to pleasantly surprised to learn New Zealand is a luxury destination, not just a family-orientated place, good for camping, biking and so on.”
Another speaker at TRENZ, TravConsult’s Trevor Lee who specialises in international customer service, says New Zealand needs to better understand the Chinese tourism market.
“There are more than one million millionaires in China and another 60,000 Chinese who are classified as ‘super-rich’, with more than $15 million dollars’ worth of assets to their names,” he says.
“These people expect a level of service and product quality when they travel.”
He advises New Zealand tourism businesses to invest in ways to tailor their services to suit the Asian markets and recommends catering for multiple languages and cultures.
Mr Lee is running the free China Ready workshops for Auckland Airport which will help tourism businesses learn more about marketing to Chinese travellers.
The workshops are in Auckland from May 28 to May 30, in Rotorua from June 11 to 13 and in Queenstown from June 18 to 20.
To register email jane.carruthers@aucklandairport.co.nz.
3 News
source: newshub archive
