Indian tourists flock to New Zealand
By Gurbir Singh (New Zealand)
Hamilton, May 21, 2017 : Over the years, “100% Pure New Zealand” has emerged as the favourite and ‘hot’ overseas holiday destination for Indian tourists and these numbers see no sign of slowing down.
A record 53,424 Indians visited New Zealand during the period March 2016 to February 2017 end. This makes India as New Zealand’s 10th largest source of international visitors.
Indian honeymooners, too, seems to have ditched countries like Switzerland or other European countries, and are now opting for New Zealand as their romantic destination.
This is evident from the numerous newly-wed couples seen strolling romantically on beaches, taking selfies in poses that would normally be taboo back home.
You can’t miss them, with some girls still attired in glittering red silk salwaar-kameez, gold ornaments, and set of red and white chooda (bangles) on their henna covered arms.
Over the past five years, there has been a growth of nearly 80% of Indian visitors to New Zealand. This growth is in spite of no direct flight.
Indians are making a beeline to New Zealand, fascinated by what the “100% Pure New Zealand” has to offer and they lack in their own country.
Indians like to escape and take a break from the hustle and bustle of their daily life- overcrowding, traffic congestions, noise and air pollution. India’s hill station towns, Shimla, Nainital, Mussoorie, etc have lost their charm now. These are today no better than any town or city of India with problems of water shortages, traffic, rising temperatures, noise and air pollution, etc.
New Zealand takes pride in offering them spectacular breath taking scenery, clean and green environment, mountains and walks, beaches, friendly local kiwis, numerous adventure activities, small population and extensive land area and much more.
It is expected that by the year 2020, out of India's 6.5 crore passport holders, up to 5 crore Indians would be going overseas for a holiday every year.
New Zealand’s is focussed on this highly lucrative tourist market and is making every effort to ensure it is on the itinerary of majority of Indian travellers.
Tourism New Zealand –the organisation responsible to market New Zealand to the world as a tourist destination, is using famous Bollywood actor and former model, Sidharth Malhotra as its ambassador to attract Indian holiday makers.
His two visits to New Zealand’s has generated a lot of publicity and helped raise the country’s profile as a popular holiday destination.
Reports released last year by travel search engine, Skyscanner, also revealed that highest number of searches for a holiday destination by Indians were for New Zealand
Shooting of several hit Bollywood and Hollywood movies at picturesque locations in New Zealand also make the country more desirable for tourists.
The significant tourist growth from India has also been driven by the mutual passion for cricket, increased airline capacities and low travel costs. Additionally, New Zealand is also now considered a safer place to visit in relation to Europe.
Auckland Airport is already gearing up to handle the increased inflow of tourists. In order to better understand the ‘high value’ Indian tourist, the Airport recently commissioned a research to “determine the key motivators that would attract greater numbers (of Indians) to New Zealand”.
The findings of this research, “The High Net worth and Sophisticated Free Independent Traveller (FIT) Indian Traveller” released last week, proved that New Zealand is increasingly seen as a ‘hot’ destination that offers a wide range of choices.
Most Indian tourists regard New Zealand as once in a lifetime trip. So, their stay of 13 days is significantly longer and their per capita spending is also considerable than visitors from other countries.
For New Zealand’s booming tourism industry of $14.5 billion, the Indian visitors are ‘high value’, and potentially one of most valuable sources of tourism foreign exchange earner on a per-visitor basis.
Tourism in New Zealand is the largest foreign exchange earner, and according to Statistics NZ, tourism directly employs 7.5 per cent of New Zealand’s workforce. The number of tourists arriving here in 2016 was a record 3.6 million. In 2023 these numbers will touch 4.9 million.
Travel from India is expected to become easier at some stage in future when Air India and Air New Zealand launch their direct flight services. Airlines code-share deal has already been signed a year back. Increase in traffic will surely hasten this process.
Meanwhile, ‘god zone’ (as New Zealand is often called) will continue to beckon Indian travelers to its shores.
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Gurbir Singh is a New Zealand based Feature Writer & Journalist. He can be contacted at:gurbir@journalist.com