Ya.O. Zakhar'ev
Moscow State Institute of International Relations (U) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Moscow
A.V. Kolmakova
Institute of oriental studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow

Кeywords: tourism, New Zealand, Chinese minority, investment in New Zealand.

Introduction. Tourism is one of the most rapidly developing sectors in the economy of different countries of the world. According to experts, it is this sector that will be crucial for the development of most countries in the 21^st century. Active tourism is very popular in Europe, North America, APAC countries, particularly New Zealand.

The purpose of the research was to analyze the impact of the New Zealand’s Chinese community on State’s tourism industry.

Research results.  At present, the share of tourism in the GNP of the country is at least 10%. About 18,000 companies are involved in this area, creating around 10% of jobs in the country. About two million tourists visit New Zealand every year due to many reasons for that. Ecological cleanness of the region can be named as the most important reason for such activity.  This factor has induced the government to make this advantage the brand of the state as a whole, widely known as such throughout the world. Since the issues of the global climate changes are included in the priority list of environmental protection tasks, the protective measures aimed at preserving the flora and fauna, global ocean resources are of particular importance. Due to high quality organization of the conservation system it was possible to preserve intact a part of water resources and relict trees as well as some plant species in danger of extinction. Over 5% of the territory of the country are national parks under the UN protection.

Travel segment is very dynamic in the economy. It has grown by 4.9% compared with the previous year. If we consider the number of visits since 1993, this figure doubled and, according to 2006 data, was 842 million people. However, in the global context New Zealand is quite a small player due to its size and geographic remoteness. Its share is 0.6% of the global values, but this figure will undoubtedly increase. According to experts, the development of domestic tourism will be slowing down, by about 0.8% annually.

The development strategy of this sector has been devised by the Government until 2015 and includes a number of priorities:

- visitors should be made interested by the uniqueness of natural resources;

- the tourism industry and local communities should cooperate for mutual benefit;

- the tourism industry should be attractive for investment, and it should involve highly qualified workforce;

- the environment must not be adversely affected, natural resources must be preserved and multiplied.

 To achieve these goals all the involved in this area should keep the balance between business interests and natural resources protection; it is also necessary to provide sustained public support and bring in investments, which is currently provided to the full, since tourism is an important export sector of the economy. Foreign visitors bring about $ 8.3 billion to the economy of the country, which is about 19 % of the total export earnings. Unlike other export-oriented sectors that produce and sell their products abroad, the tourism industry brings direct profit to economy. Tourism within New Zealand itself is also an important part of the economy. Thus, according to experts, “domestic” tourism generated the profit of 10.3 billion dollars annually that helps support the industry during seasons that are unpopular with foreign visitors. Product development for the export market provides a base for the development of the export potential.

 This niche is of particular interest for the capital of the ethnic Chinese in New Zealand. With passports of citizens of New Zealand, the Chinese are successfully developing their hotel complexes in compliance with all environmental laws and civil law regulations of the country. Their business is represented by a wide range of hotels of various levels of service. Ethnic Chinese give priority to investment into large hotel complexes offering a wide range of services and located in major cities of the North Island. These complexes target affluent clients from Australia, China, Chile, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa. On the South Island and in the suburbs of the capital such as Wellington they prefer to invest in the construction of hotels and hotel complexes targeting the local population with a simplified range of services and occupying smaller areas for recreational activities.

This area of the economy is interesting for the Chinese of Southeast Asia due to the opportunity for investment in the hotel business of New Zealand using “Trans-Chinese banks” such as OCBC. These investments do not require special complex schemes due to the transparency of the legislation in New Zealand and are generally considered beneficial primarily for the following Chinese holdings: the Pangestu of Indonesia, the Quek of Malaysia, Yoma Holding of Myanmar (former Yoma Bank), the Philippine business of the Cojuangco (relatives of Benigno Aquino III, President of the Philippines), Vietnamese construction companies of the ethnic Chinese of Ho Chi Minh City. The greatest interest to the development of investment in the tourism business of New Zealand is experienced by the ethnic Chinese clan of Malaysia – that of Quek, the one that owns a chain of wonderful hotel complexes in the Federation of Malaysia and beyond, having an excellent reputation in the world of tourism due to such complexes as “Shangri-La”, “Xishan” and others.

For China competing in construction tenders with the company’s own workforce becomes the most interesting investment area. However, the New Zealand government is not enthusiastic over providing such terms to Chinese companies, as it has a negative impact on the prices of the domestic labor market, and most importantly, the repetition of the scenario of the Chinese workforce “staying for good” as it was in Myanmar and Central Asia in 2009 – 2010 is an issue entailing further views polarization in the society. Nevertheless, Chinese construction companies are seeking to occupy a niche specifically in the construction sector, although they have significant competition in the form of New Zealand national companies (including New Zealand ethnic Chinese with Chinese capital).

Conclusions. Having been affected by the financial crisis and in view of economic gains, New Zealand is about to change the priority from the Japanese and Korean tourist client bases to the countries less affected by the financial crisis. In particular, experts believe it will be most efficient to focus on the UK and the USA. In addition, one should remember developing China. Australia is also among the priority countries, which are potential investors in the tourism of New Zealand. 30 million dollars were allocated from the country’s budget by the government of New Zealand for the development of the sector in 2011-2014. Positive trends should not take long.

The data for this article were obtained during interviews with the ethnic Chinese of New Zealand and Southeast Asia and are available in less detail on the websites of the Government of New Zealand as well as in huaqiaowangluo resource.

Corresponding author: Yaroslav.zakharyev@mail.ru; Kazutaka@yandex.ru