Prime Minister Christopher Luxon (centre) and Tourism Minister Louise Upston (to his left) at Trip.com headquarters in Shanghai. Photo: RNZ / Craig McCulloch
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has poured cold water on the idea of complete visa waivers, or extended visas for "premium" travellers from China.
On his first trip to China in the job, Luxon spent the morning visiting the headquarters of the country's top online travel agency Trip.com to witness a deal being signed with Tourism New Zealand to coordinate marketing campaigns.
He was given a tour of the building and treated to a high-tech multimedia display showcasing the demand for holidays from Chinese tourists.
Trip.com chief executive Jane Sun and vice president Edison Chen both used the opportunity to pitch the extended visa ideas to Luxon, but he told reporters it was not being considered.
"Immigration New Zealand deals with immigration for 195 countries, what we've asked them to do since the beginning of the year as we go for growth is to continue to look at our settings with respect to China - are they appropriate? We believe they are," he said.
"You're seeing us constantly adjust our visa settings ... we won't be doing that today, it's not something we've discussed or talked through."
He denied it was about a lack of trust.
"No, not at all. It's just Immigration New Zealand has a decision and a responsibility to look at the visa settings for 195 countries ... that's a decision for them to make," he said.
"I'm really comfortable with Immigration New Zealand, I'm very comfortable with our visa settings."
Luxon pointed to a 40 percent increase in interest in New Zealand from the platform over the last 30 days.
Sun and Chen both commended Luxon for the government's Monday announcement the government would trial visa waivers for Chinese travellers arriving from Australia.
Immigration NZ is also adding simplified Chinese content to its official website, and scrapping the requirement for certified translations on visa documents.
"Those are the things that we're trying to do to make sure the visa encumbrance is as less as possible ... New Zealand's a pretty attractive proposition," Luxon said.
The challenge New Zealand faced in recovering tourism from China was more to do with marketing than improving access, he said.
"Just ask you to take a step back, this is a country where New Zealand's trade with the China economy is about a third of 1 percent ... so our biggest challenge is actually getting share of mind and raising the profile of New Zealand within China and that's a marketing challenge.
"You have to be in the market advocating very strongly and there's no doubt about it we had a very inward-looking period, and we also actually were very slow coming out of Covid."
Tourism Minister Louise Upston said that as suggestions about visa changes came up, they would be evaluated "on whether or not those support our aspirations".
"We've had a number of suggestions put to me in my time as the minister and we have actively worked on a couple of them. There's another one coming, but we will consider other options as the months progress.
"I want to make sure we're taking practical steps at a time rather than leaping into changes that would be more significant."
She pointed to the marketing deal signed with Trip.com, saying it meant using technology "not just to launch to the China market but across the globe, making it very clear that New Zealand's open for business".
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