STORY: Chinese tourism information session held in Auckland
SHOOTING TIME: Aug. 28, 2024
DATELINE: Aug. 29, 2024
LENGTH: 00:02:27
LOCATION: AUCKLAND, New Zealand
CATEGORY: ECONOMY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the Chinese Tourism Information Session

STORYLINE:

Chinese Tourism Information Session was held Wednesday in New Zealand's largest city, Auckland.
   
The session was jointly hosted by the Chinese Embassy in New Zealand, the Chinese consulates general in Auckland and Christchurch, and China cultural centers in Wellington and Auckland.
   
Wang Xiaolong, the Chinese ambassador to New Zealand, said that tourism plays a unique role in improving the understanding between the people of New Zealand and China.
   
This year, the Chinese government has adopted a range of measures covering visa, payment, flight, and accommodation to improve the travel experience for overseas tourists. Following the successive measures introduced by the Chinese government, particularly since the implementation of more unilateral visa-free policies, a growing number of foreigners have opted to travel to China, said Wang.
   
"Meanwhile, Chinese tourists are also enthusiastic about traveling to New Zealand. According to Statistics New Zealand, as of May this year, New Zealand received 226,000 Chinese tourists, up by 336.7 percent year-on-year. This fully demonstrates the strong desire from both sides for more people-to-people interactions and two-way travel," he added.
   
David Carter, former speaker of the New Zealand Parliament, who has visited China many times for both official and personal reasons, shared with the participants his experience of traveling in Beijing with his family in April this year. During just two days, he and his family were able to rent shared bikes using Alipay, riding to and visiting several tourist attractions.
   
Data from Alipay shows that in the first half of this year, the amount of money spent by inbound tourists using Alipay increased by 8 times year-on-year. Among them, the amount of money spent by inbound tourists from countries that do not require a visa to come to China or have mutual visa exemption with China increased by 15 times year-on-year in the first half of the year.
   
Xu Tong, director of the China Cultural Center in Wellington, said that since the end of the pandemic, China and New Zealand have opened and resumed a number of direct flights, which have facilitated personnel exchanges between the two sides and benefited the development of tourism. Currently, six cities on the Chinese mainland have opened direct flights to New Zealand, with 50 flights per week, exceeding the pre-pandemic record.
   
Air China's Auckland office said that starting this winter, Air China's Auckland-Beijing direct flights are planned to gradually increase from the current four flights per week to one flight per day, to meet the growing demand of passengers.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Auckland, New Zealand.
(XHTV)