Chinese New Year is just around the corner and 70,000 Chinese visitors are expected to arrive in New Zealand in the four weeks surrounding the holiday, starting 8 February.
This would set another new record for China and be 30 per cent higher than last year's golden travel period of 55,000.
Tourism New Zealand chief executive Kevin Bowler joined Paul Henry to talk about what the additional visitor numbers mean for the country.
Average expenditure per Chinese visitor was $5,100, a 30 per cent increase for the year.
China is the second largest visitor market into New Zealand.
For the year ending December 2015 total arrivals grew by 34.4 per cent, to 355,904 total visitors. Holiday arrivals grew 39.7 per cent for the same period, with 272,464 arrivals.
Watch the video for the full interview.