ABSTRACT
The Chinese market has become increasingly important for the tourism industry in New Zealand. Recent research suggests that there is scope to attract a greater proportion of high-spending Chinese holidaymakers, increase their length of stay and regional spread, and improve the quality of their experiences in the country. While the tourism industry works to improve the quality of the Chinese visitor experience, one option may be to encourage holidaymakers to experience wine tourism during their stay. Wine tourism could be appealing to this market, given the range of experiences they enjoy in New Zealand, and the growing importance of wine as a status symbol amongst younger, wealthier and more educated Chinese consumers. The aim of this research is to explore the current interest in wine tourism amongst Chinese holidaymakers to New Zealand. It seeks to explore what barriers exist to greater participation by this market in wine tourism, and to identify strategies to increase participation by Chinese holidaymakers in this tourist activity. These issues have been explored through interviews with Chinese Inbound Tour Operators (ITOs) who outline their perceptions of the current interest in wine tourism experiences, and the potential of wine tourism for the Chinese holidaymaker market in New Zealand. Their thoughts about ways existing products and services could be modified to better meet the needs of this market are outlined also. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for wine tourism providers and destination marketing organisations (DMOs).
