thepotenalofwinetourismtoenhancethe...

The poten)al of wine tourism to enhance the Chinese visitor experience in New Zealand: a

visitor and stakeholder perspec)ve

Jo Fountain, Lincoln University

Introduc*on

•  Chinese visitors crucial to New Zealand tourism industry •  More focus on a:rac*ng FIT Chinese visitors

–  Higher spending –  Longer length of stay, greater regional spread

•  Goal to improve the quality of Chinese visitor experiences in New Zealand –  Premier Kiwi Partnership Programme; “GeIng ready for China” workshops

Introduc*on

•  Grape wine a status symbol amongst younger, wealthier, more educated consumers in China

•  Wine consump*on in China growing at 10% to 15% per year (Noppe, 2012)

•  China could become the largest wine consumer in the world over the next three decades

•  New Zealand Wine industry increasingly focused on China as an export market –  2008 $NZ 2.4m à –  2013: $NZ $26.9m in wine exports to China

Wine & tourism: synergies and opportuni*es?

•  Highlights for Chinese visitors in NZ includes: –  experiencing rural landscape –  clean, fresh air –  mee*ng friendly locals (Insights Team TNZ, 2013)

•  Desire to purchase high quality local produce in New Zealand (Expert Advisory Group, 2012)

•  The importance of buying gibs, and the role of wine in gib giving in China


•  2011/12 Visitor Experience Monitor China –  Chinese visitors impressed by good quality wine in NZ (TNZ, 2012, p.9)

•  Ac*vi*es: 18% of Chinese visitors visited wine trail/vineyard; 62% were interested to do so (TNZ, 2012, p.20) 9% of Chinese visitors par*cipated in ‘food and wine events/shows’; 77% were interested to do so (TNZ, 2012, p.17)


•  BUT: Currently, Chinese tourists do not match the profile of wine tourists –  89% of wine tourists are FITs, who stay on average 18.6 days (Tourism New Zealand, 2014)

•  Few wine tourism products are offered in anything other than English (Deng, 2013)

•  For the majority of Chinese na*onals, wine is not a regularly consumed or widely understood beverage


•  Chinese visitors are the least sa*sfied with their wine tourism experience

Research Ques*on •  What is the poten,al for wine tourism to add

to Chinese visitors’ experience in New Zealand?

•  How do industry stakeholders (ITOs, wineries) view the poten,al of this market?

•  How interested are Chinese visitors in wine tourism experiences in New Zealand?

•  What needs to be done to improve the appeal of wine tourism for Chinese visitors?

Methodology: Interviews

•  In-‐depth semi-‐structured interviews with: –  Nine winery owners/managers in Auckland/Waiheke and Central Otago region: •  Chinese content on website, well known brand, and/or men*on by Chinese ITOs

•  Most exported to China to varying degrees – From 2 to 6 years; small propor*on to 50%

–  Five Chinese Inbound Tour Operators offering ADS and high end tours: •  Contacted 11 Chinese ITOs (in English) who were at the *me PKP members

•  Offered Chinese translator

Methodology: Survey

•  Structured ques*onnaire survey, designed in English and translated into Mandarin

•  Administered in Queenstown and Auckland by na*ve Chinese speaker

•  240 surveys, including: 123 Chinese holidaymakers (staying less than 30 nights, M= 12.2 nights) 80 longer staying students (median = 725 nights)

•  Holidaymakers more likely to be interviewed in Queenstown; students in Auckland

Interest and par*cipa*on in wine tourism

•  ITOs and wineries agree there are an increasing numbers of Chinese visitors to wineries ITOs have tours including a winery visit (Auckland, or Queenstown); some offer day tours to Waiheke Island Wineries had no market research on Chinese visitors – hard to differen*ate markets

•  Stakeholders disagree on reasons for growth increasing interest, increasing numbers of Chinese visitors, changing characteris*cs of visitors

•  ITOs and wineries agree there are different segments, with different interest levels

Interest and par*cipa*on in wine tourism

•  Wineries: Inbound versus domes*c (e.g. student and local resident group)

•  Primarily independent travellers – many family groups (three genera*ons) or couples

•  Some tour groups, with interpreters

•  ITOs: Group tours limited interest; high-‐end tours (oben business/poli*cal much more interest:

“The majority are males, they are the high end travellers. Between age 30 and 50s beyond 50 it is s,ll not their sort of taste” (ITO-‐2)

-‐ Interested in business opportuni*es

ITOs: Chinese visitors’ interest in wine tourism

•  ADS group visitors have limited interest in wine tourism: “For the normal holiday maker they may want to see more sightseeing or programmes, rather than just going to a winery.” (ITO-‐2)

•  The inclusion of a winery visit is an add-‐on to a tour – offers something unique, but not a key selling point “The people who asked is really rare. But if you put a winery on the i,nerary, they will accept it. More of the people are like that”. (ITO-‐4)

Survey: Chinese visitors’ interest in wine tourism

•  Limited interest in wine tourism for holidaymakers and students, although students significantly more interested

•  A winery visit ranked more highly than other, frequently promoted tourist ac*vi*es: –  Holidaymakers: rated wine tourism more highly than Maori a:rac*ons and experiences

–  Students: rated wine tourism more highly than visi*ng a na*onal park, a farm, or experiencing Maori culture

•  35.7% of holidaymakers & 66.3% of students had visited/would visit a winery during their NZ visit –  primarily in Auckland/Waiheke or Central Otago

•  ‘I don’t drink wine’ main reason given for lack of interest

Survey: Chinese interest in wine tourism

1= not at all interested; 7= extremely interested

Mean

Holidaymakers Students

Visit an na)onal park 5.46 ** (5) 4.76 Par)cipate in adventure sports 4.06 5.16 * Visit geothermal sites/hot pools 5.23 5.52 Take a scenic bushwalk 5.65 (4) 5.44 Shop for giJs or souvenirs 4.11 * 3.49 Experience Maori cultural show 3.99 4.06 View/learn about NZ’s wildlife 5.29 5.82 (2) Visit a farm 4.96 4.68 Visit museum/ historic building 4.48 5.77 (4) Experience local food and wine 4.84 5.49 ** Learn about NZ European history 4.48 4.89 Visit a casino 2.32 3.34 * Visit an art gallery 4.09 4.84 * Learn about Maori history & culture 3.95 3.86 Visit a beach 6.16 (1) 5.81 (3) Go to a botanic garden or park 4.78 5.20 Visit scenic landmarks 6.01 (2) 6.19 (1) Go on a scenic tour 5.97 (3) 5.63 (5) Visit a winery or vineyard 4.32 (13/19) 5.06 ** (11/19)

ITOs: reasons for lack of interest

•  Wine s*ll has limited role in Chinese lives: “For normal people like us, we don’t really drink wine. We drink wine but we don’t know the history or the culture or whatever. We drink different alcohol, yeah, and we know that culture. And now because, normally rich people will buy wine.” (ITO-‐3)

•  Mo*va*on to visit New Zealand: “Actually it depend on loca,on because most of the people come from China they come to New Zealand for the beau,ful natural scenery, and for example, if we change the [loca,on], going to France, they definitely would want to go to winery, yeah.” (ITO-‐2)

ITOs: reasons for lack of interest

•  Priori*se, based on limited *me: In the i,nerary if you go to Waiheke it will take the whole day but some,mes you want to take the whole day to Rotorua or either Taupo, so it is a bit tricky, if they only have a limited ,me, to spend a whole day on one ac,vity is a bit much.” (ITO-‐4)

•  Don’t know about New Zealand wines

The Chinese winery experience: Why they visit

•  Primarily interested in scenery and relaxing: “I think first of all they enjoy the scenery, as I experienced a winery tour in Waiheke, I feel it is a very good, beau,ful area and really elegant environment to enjoy, and very relaxing, and you can see very far away about the sea coast and about the vineyards. And you enjoy wine, so it is a very good experience.” (ITO-‐2)

•  Taking photos a priority: “Most of the ,me they just want to take photos, yeah. A lot of them will only taste a few wines, I think they are like, yeah, just more into the whole visi,ng the winery.” (Winery-‐4)

The Chinese winery experience:

“Photos is a big thing. You know you’d start the wine tour and then some of them would just driY off, and they’ll be posing and taking photos down by the lake, and then you come back here to do a tas,ng with them and they want to have a photo with you. I think that’s part of the whole thing; they’ve got photos they can show people back home.” (Winery-‐2)

The Chinese winery experience

•  Mixed feelings on level of knowledge and interest of Chinese tourists, par*cularly from wineries: “Some,mes …you’ll be taking them around on a tour, and especially if it is only them and no one else is with them the guy might say ‘no need to show them that, no need to show them that’, you know, ‘keep going faster’.” (Winery-‐2)

The Chinese winery experience:

•  Limited interest? •  “They’ll … stay for an hour walking the property, and you

know, will come in and usually one member of the family will engage a member of the tas,ng staff, not necessarily understand the process, and then we will speak, a_emp,ng to engage them to enjoy our products, and they’ll usually purchase a few things in the giY shop and that’s about it…. A lot of them necessarily won’t know what they are purchasing, they’ll just come in and ask what is the most expensive red you’ve got…. not necessarily knowledgeable at all.” (Winery-‐5)


•  Acknowledge language barriers (both wri:en and spoken): “When they come on a tour they have their interpreters, and they vary, in terms of their ability to translate and speak English and some,mes, because it is wine and it is a foreign subject to them, you do wonder what they’re actually telling them, and whether it actually means anything to them and whether it is making any sense.” (Winery-‐2)


•  Overall impression of experience quite nega,ve for some wineries:

•  “… it is a pre_y poor experience for us and them I imagine. We can’t really talk to them, because we don’t speak Mandarin, so we can’t go into depth, and they only really have a very basic knowledge of wine, very basic. They’re a pre_y unsophis,cated market. They don’t normally stay very long, and buy not much wine at all, occasionally a bo_le or two, so they really aren’t that valuable to us.’ (Winery-‐8)


•  Some wineries suggest evidence of shibing focus, and increased understanding and interest: “There have been more visitors from China, even in the last twelve months, more interested in the wine ……Quite oYen in the past you would feel like you were just standing there just pouring the wine, they’d just talk amongst themselves and weren’t really listening to what you were saying about the wine, whereas now it is becoming more educa,ve, they are wan,ng to learn about it.” (Winery-‐4)


•  Evidence of increasing interest, par*cularly amongst the young: “I think they are at the stage where they are star,ng to educate each other, or educate themselves, so they are listening … Most of the ,me, they’re quite a_en,ve. But they usually come in a whole family group so there’s the old folk… and then the older ones will look aYer the kids, so it is all family …. They are a lot more knowledgeable, the young ones, than what we give them credit for, eh? The older ones that are just looking for a sweet red wine to impress”.. (Winery-‐3) Unclear if domes*c visitors, students, or inbound tourists

Survey: Important factors for winery visit

•  “If you were to visit a winery, how important would the following factors be to your experience”

•  Smaller sample (112 respondents) •  Chinese visitors generally have different priori*es from

other visitor groups at wineries: –  Opportuni,es to relax the most important factor –  A_rac,ve scenery at the winery very high priority –  Opportuni,es to learn about wine & winemaking

almost as important as wine tas,ng for Chinese visitors •  Buying wine generally rela*vely unimportant (but more

important for students)

Survey: Important factors for winery visit

1= not at all important; 7= extremely important n= 112

Means Holidaymakers Students Overall

availability of an organised tour to winery 3.77 3.25 3.41 opportunity to taste wine 4.54 (3) 5.30 (4) * 4.96 (4) wine tas)ng free of charge 3.77 4.75 * 4.18 a short journey (less than one hour) 3.36 4.45 ** 3.96 being able to take a guided tour around winery 3.80 4.32 4.14 having Chinese speakers at the winery 3.81 4.10 3.95 availability of China UnionPay 3.77 3.67 3.95 opportuni)es to relax 5.00 (1) 5.52 (1) 5.44 (1) opportuni)es to meet the winemaker 4.00 4.83 * 4.49

hearing stories about wine growing & wine making 4.24 (5) 5.08 * 4.73 (5)

easy to find the way to the winery 3.67 4.78 ** 4.26 wines available to buy for yourself 4.13 5.10 ** 4.66 aTrac)ve scenery at the winery 4.83 (2) 5.45 (3) 5.29 (2) opportuni)es to learn about wine and winemaking 4.43 (4) 5.51 (2) ** 4.98 (3) wines available to buy for giJs 4.02 5.12 (5) ** 4.51 non-‐alcoholic drinks available 3.04 3.73 3.31 availability of a restaurant 3.74 4.77 * 4.25

Mee*ng the needs of the Chinese winery visitor

•  Recognise differences in expecta*ons or needs: •  Limited evidence of this being done:

Have you got any special processes or training in place for the Chinese market, do you treat them differently at all?

“Nah, I pre_y much treat them the same as everyone else to come through… We haven’t had any special training to treat them any differently…” (Winery-‐3)


•  Chinese visitors may have different mo*va*ons for visi*ng wineries than other market segments: –  Facilitate opportuni*es to relax and enjoy the scenery –  Wine tas*ng is not top priority; so combine with other experiences, e.g. food and wine: “I think, my sugges,on is that it is not just the wine tas,ng, you can combine some food, like lunch, or dinner, together, so make this more, so it is more than wine. So it is about the experience of the very good quality New Zealand food and New Zealand wine.” (ITO-‐4) “Put it that way, if you are going to visit somewhere you want beau,ful scenery definitely you want some good food as well, because that is your holiday, right?” (ITO-‐2)


•  Engage them with stories about the wine and/or winery “They don’t really understand what the difference [is between wines/wineries]. They think it is just wine, you just taste different wine. They may not really know about the culture or the background of the winery. ‘Cos some,mes like in winery the people they only tell you about the wine, but maybe the informa,on may be not that much, so for tourists they may feel OK, just wine, I just taste it, whether good or not, whether I buy it or not.” (ITO-‐3) “Before I come to New Zealand I do not know much about wine knowledge. When I first come to New Zealand… and we went … to a winery and then the first ,me I know ‘Oh wine has a lot of stories, different stories’, that was quite interes,ng to me… how they are made, because before I don’t have this knowledge. It make me so interested, ah that is so different.” (ITO-‐2)


•  Wineries should not expect to rely on tour guides: may not have the language skills, or *me “We do have a tour guide, and a tour leader, but most of them don’t have this winery knowledge, so we expect winery staff they do explain in Chinese, or have Chinese headset, so they can understand what they are listening…. Because most of the Chinese tourists who come here their English is not that good, so they s,ll expect at least you have something translated to them, they understand what is happening, or story, make more interes,ng. Otherwise they don’t know what you talk about.” (ITO-‐2) “The tour guide can do the transla,on but some,mes it is like the whole group of people go there. Some people they just don’t want to follow. Some people just go other place to take photos, so the tour leader has to look aYer everyone, so some,mes it is a bit hard for the tour leader to just focus on the wine discussion.” (ITO-‐3)

ITOs: Challenges and room for improvement

•  An investment in welcoming Chinese visitors and responding to their specific needs will pay dividends: •  “I think it will promote well in China, but it will really

take ,me, because people really don’t know about it…. Because tourism product is the thing that you come to see, it’s a kind of experience. You have to experience, you know, what is it, so it is different…. and also the promo,on of the winery and wine in the China market. You can promote the winery as a product in the i,nerary, or you promote the wine, so as the wine is so famous you want to see the winery, so it can be both things.” (ITO-‐3)

Winery 1: welcoming Chinese

•  Strong export to China for 5+ years •  Do you think the numbers of Chinese wine tourists are

going to increase? “Oh heck yeah! …We made a conscious decision some ,me back to actually target Chinese tourists, Chinese in Auckland… there is an enormous Chinese popula,on in Auckland, a hell of a lot, and they want to become Kiwis, OK? Part of the story to become a Kiwi is to go to the wineries. And they might come here; this might be the first winery that they have ever been to in their life. It is easy for them to come to and once they have been here once they like to bring their family, their friends, anyone else out from China….

Winery 1: welcoming Chinese

“They are comfortable, they’re at ease… you’ve got to make them comfortable. They come in here. They can pick up the brochure in Chinese…. and I even have the welcome sign in Chinese out the front. You’ve got to go out of your way, it is part of marke,ng, how it is sold – different from how others are. I think apart from being made to feel comfortable, I think there is a wide range of wines and they like to know that we are selling in China, we always give them a distributor’s list and that once again makes them feel comfortable... it gives them confidence that we are a legi,mate, reliable company…. We have special training of staff.. We try very much to [teach] just the e,que_e side of things, how to deal with them, how to react to them, how to communicate with people who don’t speak English…. The pa,ence, working through it, so we do that….. “

Discussion and conclusion

•  Winery visits are not within the top ten interests for Chinese visitors, however there is a market for wine tourism amongst Chinese visitors – both domes*c and interna*onal

•  Trends in consump*on and tourism suggest interest will con*nue to grow

•  Chinese visitors may have different priori*es and needs from other visitors (and from each other) –  Target products to their needs, e.g. more stories, food and wine experiences

•  The language barrier is reducing the quality of the visitor experience for many Chinese visitors –  Seek to improve communica*on

THANK YOU-‐ QUESTIONS?

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