Agri-tourism is expected to become a key attraction for international visitors in the next few years, particularly tourists from China, and Venture Southland is planning to develop Southland's assets to take advantage of that.
Venture Southland tourism product development co-ordinator Cameron Richardson said an ANZ AgriFocus report released late last year reported more than a quarter of the international tourists visiting New Zealand in 2015 visited a farm or orchard, and one in five visited a vineyard or wine trail.
''Agri-tourism (especially farm tours) is firmly on our radar for 2018,'' he said.
Mr Richardson said Chinese visitors in particular enjoyed going to a farm or orchard, with two thirds going to either or both.
''China is the Southland region's third-largest international market - spending more than $31million in the 12 months before October 2017.
''However, the [agri-tourism] sector is definitely in its infancy in Southland.''
As part of Venture Southland's plans to capture more of the visitor spend, it planned to hold an agri-tourism workshop in October.
''We are now working alongside several operators and we are hoping to cover consumer demand, trial runs, digital marketing, trade relationships, increasing the quality of products and services and regional support.''
Venture Southland was also considering looking at Alipay, a smartphone app that 520 million Chinese preferred over credit cards and eftpos payment systems, Mr Richardson said.
Tourism New Zealand reported that for the year to March 2012 figures showed that visiting farms was the No 1 activity for Chinese tourists, 68% of Chinese tourists visiting a farm, a total almost 400% more than the rest of the tourist market, he said.
They were also keen to see volcanic and geothermal attractions (83%), lookouts and view platforms (80%) and gardens (71%), while only 57% wanted to see cultural attractions.
He said other statistics from the more recent Chinese International Travel Monitor showed there was an appetite for ''eco tours'' and ''remote locations''.
Venture Southland released its Southland Tourism Key Indicators report for year ending October 2017.
Southland region
China was third out of the top five international markets during the period, with visitors from Australia and the United States first and second respectively.
Germany and the United Kingdom were fourth and fifth.
The total international tourism spend for the year ending in October, 2017, was $266 million, up 18.4% compared to the previous year.
Southland Regional Tourism Organisation (RTO)
Statistics for the Southland RTO area, including the Catlins, showed China sitting at third place for the international market, and the same for the Fiordland RTO.
Australia and the UK were the top two in both.
Southland RTO's international visitor spend total was $105million for the year to October 2017, up 21.8% on previous corresponding period, and Fiordland's RTO international spend was $162million, up 16.3%.
-By Yvonne O'Hara
