There has been a lot of talk about China lately - the growth,
the opportunities and the challenges that many of us are facing in
getting the most out of the market.
Tourism New Zealand is committed to further enhancing New
Zealand's position as a quality visitor destination in both the
Chinese and emerging Halal markets of India, Malaysia, Indonesia
and the Middle East. Halal is the term used to describe people who
follow the Muslim faith and their needs relate specifically to
food, space and facilities. It is estimated that Muslims will make
up almost one in three of the world's population by 2025.
Key goals for Tourism New Zealand are to increase the number of
high-value visitors to New Zealand from these markets but equally
as important, support the delivery of a quality visitor experience
for travellers once they are here.
To this end, in October we will be running a series of workshops
aimed at passing on our expert market knowledge, to you as
operators. The full-day workshops will be presented by Tourism New
Zealand's market experts and business consultants that we are
bringing in specifically for these sessions. They will be
structured to offer something for all operators whether they are
new to these markets, or already confident but wanting more.
Presenters include me alongside, Manager of Tourism Operations Paul
Yeo, Manager of Business Development Bjoern Spreitzer, China Media
Advisor Christiana Zhu and staff from our China Development Unit
Andrew Johns and Cici Huang.
Amy Adams from Occam Consulting, Tony Boot from Tony Boot Marketing
and Fazal Bahardeen, CEO of CrescentRating will provide additional
expertise to these sessions.
Numbers will be limited and registration is vital. There is a
charge of $50+ gst for attending these workshops which will be used
to cover food and beverage, and contribute to the cost of our
business experts.
Don't worry if you can't make the October round of workshops - if
they prove really popular we will look at running them again. We
will also be running a series of webinars that cover similar
content and updating the corporate website so everyone will be able
to access the information.
More details can be found here.
About the markets:
China is a Tier one market for Tourism New Zealand. This represents
the highest level of priority and investment reflecting the recent
growth in visitor arrivals and the potential for future growth in
visitor numbers and value.
Chinese visitor numbers are growing strongly and for year ended
July 2012, over 177,900 visitors arrived, an increase of 33.5 per
cent on the previous year. The holiday sector has seen even
stronger growth with 125,500 of the total visitors arriving for a
holiday, up 40 per cent on the previous year. This growth has seen
China become the fourth largest market in terms of visitor
arrivals.
While arrival growth has been strong, the average length of stay
for holiday visitors is only 6.1 days, less than half the average
length of holidays for all markets of 14.1 days.
India, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Middle East have introduced a
new traveller to New Zealand with specific expectations and needs,
the halal traveller. Halal is the term used to describe people who
follow the Muslim faith and their needs relate specifically to
food, space and facilities.
We consider the halal traveller as another opportunity for the
industry - a growing group with particular needs and expectations.
Indonesia is a small but growing tourism market for New Zealand,
with 11,824 visitors coming here in the year to February 2012 (a
year-on-year increase of 22.5 per cent). With the recent
announcement of Garuda Airlines entering the market arrivals will
increase. Operators who are able to cater for different needs, will
reap the benefits.