Published on : Wednesday, March 12, 2014
New Zealand tourism is trying to attract overseas tourists particularly the Chinese in bid to earn high valued currency.
It is turning a moderate eye on its declining traditional market where yield and the rate of average spending from tourists seems to be falling despite record number of overseas travelers coming to New Zealand.
The government statistics agency announced that international guest nights in January had remained unchanged from the previous month despite a record 292, 400 overseas visitors that month due to the Chinese New Year holiday period.
This may have happened with the visitors mostly staying with friends and family to spend their holiday therefore much as the overseas visitors have increased they are not really contributing much to the New Zealand’s economy.
This naturally reflects a big problem with the economy and is responsible for the low and declining yields.
The industry could either focus on a growth in numbers, which would continue to lift overall expenditure, but might appear at odds with the country’s “100 percent Pure” and clean and green marketing image, or it could focus on attracting bigger-spending travelers.
Total spending by international visitors was up 5 percent last year to 6.67 billion NZ dollars (5.64 billion U.S. dollars), but each visitor spent 1 percent less on average at just 2,760 NZ dollars (2,335 U.S. dollars), according to figures from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment last month.
Australia remained New Zealand’s largest tourism market, with Australian visitors spending 2.2 billion NZ dollars (1.81 billion U.S. dollars) last year, but their average spending fell by 3 percent.
Visitors from China, the second biggest market, spent a total of 732 million NZ dollars (604.36 million U.S. dollars), up 7 percent, but their average spending fell by 14 percent.
Tourism contributes directly and indirectly almost 9 percent of New Zealand’s gross domestic product and directly provides more than one in 20 full-time equivalent jobs, making it a pillar industry.
More focus is being laid on independent travelers from countries like China than the package tour tourist, but this will take time to yield the significant results. Also the government would have to strategically plan and provide what the higher-yield tourists want.
The policy is still trying to understand the new segment markets of China and the insecurity that remains in the markets of United States and Britain since 2008.
New Zealand government needs to add more value for money by better training of the work force; better service quality in hotels and restaurants and other tourism-related businesses; more research to understand visitor markets; and new uses of technology, such as using social media to market the country.
With the growing competition from tourists from the emerging markets New Zealand tourism has to plan better strategies for attracting and offering great holiday to tourists.
Tags: australian visitors, china, Chinese New Year holiday, new zealand tourism
|
||
   
|
||
