Christchurch NZ’s fastest growing entry point for Chinese

Christchurch Airport still NZ’s fastest growing entry point for Chinese visitors

Christchurch Airport is preparing for its strongest Chinese New Year ever.

Statistics show the airport’s Chinese visitor arrivals grew by 59% in December. In that month alone, we added 2,144 more Chinese visitor arrivals, more than 60% of the total increase for the whole of New Zealand (3392).

China Southern Airlines’ capacity increased from 3xweek to 5xweek in late December, but went daily for the full month. China Southern added 63% capacity in the month, and is the major driver for growth.

The new Cathay Pacific service, direct to and from Hong Kong, also helped bring more Chinese visitors to us.

Forecast Chinese arrivals for the month of February are for up to 6000 visitor arrivals which is a growth of 50% compared to February 2017. This equates to an additional $7.5m in visitor spend (based on the average spend of $3800) as those visitors spreads out across the South Island.

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