Tourism: ISLANDS TO TARGET WEALTHY CHINESE
South Pacific nations have been urged to seriously consider the Chinese tourism market but must tread cautiously.

south-pacific.travel’s (used to be South Pacific Tourism Organisation) director Tony Everitt said the potential of Chinese visitors in the region was huge as there were 30 million Chinese travelling internationally each year.

“The World Tourism Organisation forecasts this number will grow to 100 million by 2020. However, most internationally travelling Chinese currently visit close-by destinations like Hong Kong, Macau and South East Asia.

“Chinese visitors to Australia and New Zealand could reach 1 million per annum in a few years time, so the potential in say, ten years time for a few hundred thousand Chinese to visit South Pacific Islands is there.

“In 2006, there were about 1.26 million international visitors to South Pacific Islands from all markets,” he says.