When East meets West

As hard times hit Europe and the United States, New Zealand tourist operators are being urged to turn their attention to China. But how ready are New Zealanders to deal with such a radical change in culture? Mark Price reports.

"After three days they found Queenstown too boring ..."

That startling comment came from a young Chinese man who had been hosting a wealthy Chinese family on their stay in New Zealand's very own "adventure capital of the world".

The family had booked their five-star hotel for five days but after three days changed their flights and went to Auckland.

"They have seen the beautiful scenery ... all they do is take a few pictures and then they say 'let's go ...'."

While it is just one anecdote about one wealthy family, it raises a question about whether Chinese tourists want what New Zealand is offering.

The young man, who says he deals mainly with "high end" Chinese tourists, got cold feet about the Otago Daily Times using his name for fear his comments might hurt his business.

But given insights into the thinking of wealthy Chinese tourists are not easy to come by, a native of China with considerable experience of the Queenstown tourism industry seems better placed than most to know what they really think of New Zealand.

These are some of the points he makes about those he deals with.

The only reason some are in New Zealand, he says, is because the trip was a freebie provided by a "third party" such as a business associate or the Chinese Government or Chinese Communist Party.

"If ... they pay from their own pocket, probably they wouldn't choose New Zealand."

The wealthy Chinese who do come to Queenstown, he says, are generally older.

"The rich people are not in their 20s and 30s. They are usually 50-plus and they are not interested in any activities whatsoever."

He says they do not ski, bungy jump, white-water raft or skydive and they do not want to fish or hunt in the great, but empty, outdoors.

This he puts down to historical and cultural differences - with China's traditional rice-growing economy a tamer, more communal affair than New Zealand's extensive farming and sparse settlement.

"[The Chinese] ... have to live together, they have to stick together as a group. They cannot live individually."

He says also wealthy Chinese tourists do not regard the standard of hotel accommodation and transport in New Zealand as particularly high and they are not very taken with the food - including the Chinese food served in New Zealand.

"It is not stunning."

And, to top it all off, they do not like the New Zealand "culture" of "getting on the piss".

He considers tourist operators have been fed an overly optimistic view of the potential of the market in wealthy Chinese tourists.

In May, Auckland International Airport launched a "Luxury New Zealand" project to attract "high net worth individuals" from China and the Tourism Rendezvous New Zealand (Trenz) conference in Queenstown was told these tourists fly in private jets, travel in stretched Cadillacs and have "shopping budgets" of between $50,000 and $200,000.

The Queenstown man questions whether the town can really expect a surge in the number of this sort of tourist particularly while Christchurch recovers from the earthquakes and because other countries, with higher standards of accommodation and more suitable food and activities, are running similar campaigns.