Chinese visitors' interest and engagement with wine tourism in New Zealand: A comparison of short-stay holidaymakers and students

Abstract

Over the past decade, the Chinese visitor market has become very significant to the New Zealand tourism industry. During 2012 China became the second largest source of visitors to New Zealand (Insights Team TNZ, 2013) with annual visitor numbers expected to reach 400,000 by 2018 (China Market Development Unit, 2014). During this same period the New Zealand wine industry has become acutely aware of the potential of China as an export market (New Zealand Winegrowers, 2013), as wine becomes a status symbol and fashionable drink for those who aspire to a western lifestyle (Liu & Murphy, 2007). To date, very little research has explored the synergies between these two industries for the Chinese market in a New Zealand context in particular, the interest of Chinese visitors in engaging in wine tourism (but see Deng, 2013), in the context of the current study focused on winery or vineyard visitation, during their New Zealand experience.