Andrew Aitken and Emma Bean, of Kiwi Encounter Rotorua were recently given the opportunity to go on a study tour of Guilin, China. The course was a joint venture between Tai Poutini Polytechnic, Ecotourism New Zealand, and Guilin Tourism University (GTU) in China, to learn about the Chinese tourism industry and what Chinese visitors are looking for when they travel to New Zealand.

Considering China only opened its doors to international visitors in 1997 and the government only actively supported outbound tourism from 2009, it is incredible to think that there are now 130 million outbound visitors travelling the world each year from China, New Zealand received approximately 400,000 Chinese visitors last year. [Read more…]