New Zealand tourism officials have commenced a one-year, NZD$100,000 (USD$85,000) tourism campaign, which targets the Chinese market in nearby Australia.

Australians already represent the largest number of tourists for new Zealand. However, New Zealand tourism officials sad they believe that the Chinese population in Australia represents an untapped market with huge potential. Chinese tourists from Australia are estimated to  bring in NZD$6 million by 2017.

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Chinese people in Australia represent a highly desired demographic, according to New Zealand tourism officials.

This group appearsto have more income and higher education than the typical Aussie. In addition, this group has better English skills.

Officials say that their goal is to put a promotional and development effort called Tourism Growth Partnership in play, which would connected with that segment.

More than a million Australians visited New Zealand in the last year. About half of the visitors were vacationing in the country.

Chinese-Australians had an even larger percentage visiting New Zealand on holiday as opposed to work with 175,000 of 235,000 Chinese people visiting on holiday, according to New Zealand tourism officials.

This number reflects the popularity of New Zealand as a Chinese tourist venue in general.

In a recent survey, the Chinese ranked New Zealand as their number one tourist destination among 22 nations.

Half of the one-year Chinese tourist campaign will be funded by Kiwi federal grants with the other half coming from private sources.

This effort will go hand-in-hand with a NZD$600,000 increase in Canterbury Tourism Partnership, which is also intended to increase Australian and Chinese tourism as New Zealand tourism seeks to rebound from losses related to the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes and reconstruction efforts.

The Canterbury effort looks to create momentum in tourism recovery by propping up tourist industries and generating confidence in the industry. They hope this translates into more private capital invested in local tourism businesses.

The tourism industry is expected to contribute another NZD$1 million to the publicity efforts with the expectation that each advertising dollar translates into five tourism dollars.

Overall, the Tourism Growth Partnership iniative is expected to raise NZD$32 million in outside capital to promote New Zealand tourism and encourage greater growth in the local tourism industry.

Tagstourism, new zealand, Australia, asian tourism, Travel