Twenty three tourism operators from seven Pacific countries recently returned from a ten day trip to China for training as part of the China Pacific Tourism Year under the China Belt & Road initiative.
Delegates from Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu participated in the tour funded by China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Guangdong Province and the Jinan University.
The head of the South Pacific Tourism Organisation, Chris Cocker, told Jenny Meyer what he learnt about the potential for Chinese tourism in the Pacific.
Launch of China/Pacific Island Countries Year of Tourism 2019
Photo: RNZ Pacific /Autagavaia Tipi Autagavaia
Transcript
CHRIS COCKER: The Pacific is more suitable for niche tourism from the Chinese market. The groups and also mass tourism has no place in the Pacific region, and that was a good understanding. A lot of it comes down to education and increasing of awareness of them understanding more of the Chinese tourists. And also how to prepare for them. At the end of the day it is the choice of the tourism industries in the Pacific, which tourists that they would like to target on. Because there are different niche tourist segments in the Chinese market. There is the people that are interested in culture and heritage, there is people of course honeymooners, there is divers. There is a wide range of activities of niche market segments that the Pacific tourism industry should focus and also decide where they will target. But it is ongoing training. Because it is a two way thing. The Pacific needs to be China ready before they actually receive the Chinese tourists. The other thing is for the Chinese outbound operators to be Pacific ready. So this is one of the focuses of this resource training. Out of all our emerging markets, China is the fastest emerging market. It is about five percent of our total visitor, air visitor arrivals in the Pacific, which is about 2.1 million (people) compared to the other markets. It is a market that we need to grow sustainably.
JENNY MEYER: The people that went with you, how do you think it went with them?
CC: They were open minded. They were impressed with many things that they saw in Guangdong etc. And also a better understanding of the behaviour and also characteristics. And I think that was the main outcome. A lot of them without any knowledge of the Chinese markets, what to expect. So they came back with a better understanding. Better understanding not only of the Chinese market but also understanding of the Chinese culture. They way they think, the way they act. So it also achieved our objective of the China Pacific Tourism Year. Which is also mainly to exchange culture and also understanding from both sides. I think what they learned is that there is no way that they'll be able to focus on the mass tourists or the large numbers. They have to be very careful in who they target.
JM: How do you see it in terms of the relationship with China and the Pacific?
CC: China tourism has been a member of SPTO since 2007. And tourism is not a political giant. We are an organisation and also tourism is a very civil sector. When you look around do people close their doors to tourists that come because of their political affiliations? No. We are very open. We are open to other countries as well. Because we cannot put our eggs in one basket. Our major source market is Australia and New Zealand. We have to develop our emerging markets because if there's an economic crisis that happens, the tourism industry is very volatile. So we have to spread our resources and see other emerging markets. It is not only China, there's also India that's coming, there's also South America. Any other emerging market that we could see great potential from.
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