Kiwis told to cater for BRIC tourists
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Kiwi travel professionals are being urged to change the way they deliver products and services as the tourism sector evolves.
A recent report title ‘State of the Tourism Sector 2011’, shows how the dynamic of New Zealand’s inbound market is changing. The USA and UK have always been a major contributors to arrivals there, but as the global economic balance shifts, these outbound markets are weakening and the BRIC countries are stepping up to replace them.
This February, Tourism Industry Association (TIA) Insights registered a 21.3% yoy increase in arrivals from China in December 2010, while the volume of Indian tourists grew 15.5% in the same period. Meanwhile, arrivals from the USA and UK fell 4.2% and 9.3% yoy respectively for the month.
Not only are numbers falling, but with the increasing value of the NZ dollar, so is tourist expenditure. The per person average expenditure of Chinese tourists actually surpassed NZ$3,000 (US$2,584), eclipsing that of American and British tourists.
This pattern is typical of global tourism today and those involved are being urged to adapt and evolve. Speaking this week at an industry summit at Te Papa, New Zealand, Finance Minister Bill English said the sector must target new markets. “Those markets are stuffed. Not completely, but the US and UK will spend the next 10 to 15 years on the kind of news flow that you’ve had for the last three or four months,” he said.
While Europe and America struggle to escape recession, the outbound markets in China and India are booming. English told New Zealanders to adapt their services to cater for changing tastes; “They 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.”
TIA insights noted that the emergence of the Chinese and many other new markets presents a challenge for operators to understand and best meet the needs of these markets. Such changes included a shift away from package tours with a busy schedule, to tours that are more in-depth and theme tours.
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