Chinese historian Dr Jim Ng, tourism operator and consultant Ray Grubb and former Otago Daily Times editor Robin Charteris will visit specific heritage sites around the province and talk to tourism operators as they gauge support and interest for the trail which would link the Chinese garden in Dunedin, the goldfields of Lawrence-Tuapeka and the Cromwell Mining Centre as key drawcards for Chinese visitors.
The idea has already received support in principle from the Otago Forward group of mayors and business leaders, but that group wanted to see how the concept could be expanded to include all kinds of heritage tourism and not just sites related to Chinese.
Dr Ng said approaches had been made to help fund the feasibility study and he and his two associates would wait until spring before touring the region to gauge support and interest for the trail.
The trail, Dr Ng said, had the potential to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors to the region and almost create another gold rush for Otago in the form of the massive economic boost those visitors would inject.
The trio's "field tour" of the region would gather more detailed information on how the trial would work and how it would directly benefit the province. Then the group would front up again to Otago Forward to get its formal support.
"We are already striking a lot of goodwill about this this. It is very timely," Dr Ng said.
A paper written on the proposal said several factors suggested Otago had significant potential for Chinese tourism, aside from having several key heritage sites.
Those factors included the recent signing of a free-trade agreement between both countries, Dunedin's sister city relationship with Shanghai, the Chinese garden and joint pushes by Air New Zealand and Tourism New Zealand into the Chinese market.
