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.
At a tourism industry summit in Wellington last month, finance minister Bill English emphasised the need for New Zealand to make the shift because traditional British and American tourist markets were "stuffed".
He did warn, though, on the Stuff website: "They [Chinese tourists] want different things, and we're all going to have to get used to what that growing part of the market is going to want".
Auckland research company Fast Forward Strategy and Planning Ltd has some grasp of what the Chinese expect.
The company has just completed its Asia Visitor Study 2011 based on interviews with 54 tourists from China, Singapore, Malaysia and India who were about to fly home from Auckland.
Ask company director Louise Beard if New Zealand is providing what wealthy Chinese want and she says: "No."
But, there are qualifiers.
One is that obviously there are different categories of wealth.
There are, for instance, she says, the "enabled wealthy" who now have enough money to be able to consider New Zealand for a holiday.
And then there is the growing number of the "absolutely super-wealthy" who find New Zealand does not have "all the things" they want.
Ms Beard says that is a problem for a "developing market".
"It is a little bit chicken and egg and I can understand that in targeting that high end it's expensive to develop those products.
"They [tourist operators] need to be able to be sure they've got someone to sell them to."
For the merely "enabled", Ms Beard believes New Zealand does have products to suit, if only the "enabled" could find them.
She believes poor communication is doing New Zealand operators no favours and she uses the various helicopter operators in Queenstown as "a good example".
Operators needed to communicate more clearly that they could tailor trips to suit individual tourists.
"People are quite willing to pay if they know that instead of doing the three options that are on the board they could do a fourth one."
Fast Forward's study indicated "more customised" experiences were something the "emerging" market of younger Chinese was seeking.
They also want, with their dose of New Zealand nature, more romance - such things as sunset walks on beaches and alfresco restaurants with views of sea, mountains and, "ideally", waterfalls.
One of Ms Beard's criticisms - that New Zealand lacked an internet "hub" where tourist operators and tourists could make contact - has been addressed somewhat by Tourism New Zealand recently launching internet site www.newzealand.com.
It is a heavyweight site with nice pictures and graphics but slow to operate with Dunedin-style broadband. It is also in English only, although a Chinese language version is due at the end of this month.
Fast Forward did not delve into the individual wealth of the 54 Asian tourists it interviewed but found they were "very happy" with New Zealand's "fantastic products, experiences and service" - aside from a page of nine "buts".
Leading the "buts" was the lack of "products", particularly those at the high end.
Then came the food which was "inconsistent and not always appropriate", the cost, poor communication and "she'll be right" service.
"The emerging Chinese tourist," said the study, "is highly sophisticated, well educated, well travelled and has experienced very high service levels in hospitality."
Food took up quite a chunk of the study - the package-tour Chinese visitors critical of the quality of the food and the cleanliness of restaurants.
As well, those interviewed, whether Chinese or not, had "very poor seafood experiences" with fish that did not seem fresh and limited access to live seafood to be cooked and eaten.
They wanted to be able to follow the "food route" from where such things as oysters, crayfish, whitebait and eels were caught to the place where they could be cooked and eaten.
They complained of a lack of Bluff oysters in Bluff and a lack of vegetarian food, of halal-killed meat, of rice, of dhal and of "unique gourmet experiences" featuring regional, rare, wild, different and healthy foods.
There was, said the study in summary, a lack of a "clear sense" of New Zealand cuisine.
"Overall, visitors are leaving having little sense of what New Zealand food is."
Destination Queenstown chief executive Grant Kilby considered, since the study was done in Auckland, it would not accurately reflect the Queenstown situation.
"We are specialists in the visitor industry. That's what we do 24/7 and we've done it for decades.
"The results for our town, I suspect, might be a little bit different to the national average."
Mr Kilby expected Queenstown would enjoy steady rather than "explosive" growth in Chinese tourism and would adapt, just as it had done during the rise in Japanese tourism two decades ago.
"Businesses have been through this process of needing to understand the needs of new customers and adjusting their businesses accordingly and they've done that very successfully."
He expected growth in the Chinese market would impact most in the areas of communication, recreational activities and food. However, he defended the standard of Queenstown's existing Chinese restaurants.
"I've had the pleasure of hosting a number of very senior Chinese people and groups here in Queenstown who have really enjoyed the experience, including the food."
Asked if his guests might have been too polite to criticise, Mr Kilby said: "I don't think so."
Mr Kilby also noted some adventure businesses were already adding "soft" adventure alternatives that might better suit Chinese preferences.
The other change Mr Kilby considered necessary was for New Zealanders involved with Chinese visitors to learn Mandarin - even if it was only some basic greetings.
Secretary of the recently revived Dunedin branch of the New Zealand China Friendship Society Viv Holmes suggests "Renshi ni hen gaoxing ..." (glad to meet you).
KEEPING THE CUSTOMER SATISFIED
Top NZ experiences mentioned by those surveyed for Asia Visitor Study 2011
1. Glacier walk
2. Waitomo glow-worm caves
3. Helicopter to the mountain tops
4. Overnight boat on Dusky Sound
5. Agrodome
The facts
• China is New Zealand's fourth-largest source of tourists.
• In the year to March 2011, 129,564 Chinese visited New Zealand.
• Most travel on tours that take in both New Zealand and Australia.
• 69% are aged 30-60 years.
• Group tours make up 89% of the market.
• November to April is the most popular period.
• Lead times for travel are short as Chinese tourists wait for the best deal.
• New Zealand is considered a great place to send "incentive groups".
• New Zealand is seen as safe, scenic and different.
• A "new generation" of Chinese "traveller" is said to be young, well-educated, familiar with non-Chinese cultures, "relatively wealthy", keen on technology, "sophisticated", "confident" and demanding of "high service" levels.
• High growth rates are predicted to continue.
Source: Tourism New Zealand.
