Chinese market is softer in 2019

2019 is supposed to be the China-New Zealand Year of Tourism but it's not turning out that way. Arrivals from China are down 8.7% which is a decline of 35,000 visitors from last year. A number of tourism operators have banked on an increase and invested to take advantage of the upturn and some of these are both disappointed and struggling.

There are many reasons but the top two are likely to be China’s slowing economy and global uncertainty which includes the trade war between China and the US. We are not alone but our decline seems to be steeper than some of our destination competitors. Australia for example, it has only registered a 0.2% decline in visitor numbers from China.