Families parachute together as Chinese tourists leave their comfort zones

Thursday, 15 February 2018

10-year-old Chinese visitor Yi Jun Giuo on a tandem jump over Canterbury last week with Skydiving Kiwis jump master Wayne Holmes

Not content with staring at the scenery, today's independent Chinese travellers are getting more adventurous.

Chinese youngsters are joining their parents in tandem parachute jumps, and fishing and hunting are also on the agenda for holiday-makers here to celebrate Chinese New Year.

Chinese visitors contribute more than $1.4 billion annually to the economy, and about a third are now travelling independently, with only 40 per cent of arrivals on large group tours.

As such, there have been changes in their behaviour. Jie Li, a marketing executive with promotional agency ChristchurchNZ, says Chinese family groups often consist of an only child travelling with parents and grandparents, and the youngster can have a big influence over what they do.

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'On social media a lot of parents ask 'can my 5-year-old boy do skydiving?' 'Is whale watching good for my 3-year-old'?

'The child is always the priority in their decision-making.'

Taking the leap

Skydive Auckland noticed a 30 per cent increase in children under age 12 jumping last year and Chinese customers are a fast growing part of their market.

Spokeswoman for Ashburton-based Skydiving Kiwis Sophie-Claire Violette said a Chinese family who jumped together last week chose the company because their 10-year-old daughter could skydive with her parents.

The company age limit was six. Jump masters took time to talk to children while they geared up to make sure it was their decision to jump, 'and so far no kid has chickened out.'

Guiding company Pure Taka's clients include Chinese who go shooting at a North Canterbury game park.

Business development manager for NZONE skydive in Queenstown, Derek Melnick, said they were starting to set a limit of age five 'and if kids are younger than seven, we'd also only take them to 9000 feet.'

For Chinese families it was all about having a unique experience. 'It's the pride thing of offering their kids the very, very best,' he said.

Earth and Sky is hosting up to 150 Chinese visitors a night for star-gazing sessions at Tekapo.

Fishing

The Chinese obsession with fresh seafood, crayfish in particular, has proved lucrative for charter fishing businesses in Kaikoura, although some customers get very seasick.

Feeding ducks is a big deal for Chinese visitors from big cities where they have little contact with live animals.

Tom Fitzgibbon said their two hour charters were tailored for Chinese family groups and at this time of year they took out up to 50 people a day to line fish and empty crayfish pots.

The Kaikoura coast can turn on some unpleasantly big swells and Fitzgibbon routinely advises Chinese customers to come equipped with motion sickness pills.

Chinese visitors taking photos are reminded not to stand in the flower beds at the Christchurch Botanic Gardens

'But they have no idea what (seasickness) is and they don't know till they get out there.'

Chinese tourists got their catch filleted and back on shore took it to a local fish and chip shop, where it was cooked.

Hunting

Chinese hunters are paying $1000 for a day trip to a North Canterbury game farm to shoot deer and Arapawa rams, stopping off en route back to Christchurch to have a meal of venison prepared by a chef.

Tehau Anglem's Pure Taka fishing and guiding business gives visitors a chance to explore the outdoors through trips with a Maori cultural element.

He said some Chinese clients who belonged to gun clubs back home had never shot an animal.

A few had never handled firearms before, and despite carefully supervised tutoring, they did not manage to bag anything.

'This Chinese guy couldn't hit the deer because he wasn't a very good shot. He wanted to shoot a random sheep in a paddock and I said 'No mate, you can't do that'.'

Getting the ultimate brag picture was vital and Anglem said his Chinese clients didn't mind too much what animal they shot, as long as they got a photo with it.

Snap happy

Li said Chinese use of social media was much higher than other nationalities with 96 per cent posting holiday snaps, often 30-plus photos a day.

Kiwis were frequently surprised at the seemingly mundane things Chinese chose to photograph, but plastic-wrapped hay bales, sheep, cows and even ducks were novelties for many visitors from cities where contact with wildlife was minimal.

'That's something really extraordinary for Chinese because there ducks are farmed birds for meat and you would never see wild ducks.'

They also enjoyed the freedom of walking on big expanses of grass because park lawns were frequently off limits in China.

Activities without photo opportunities were less popular, so a Chinese tourist might not enjoy glowworm caves where photography was not allowed, Li said.

In their enthusiasm to get the perfect shot, some over-step the boundaries and the Christchurch Botanic Gardens has signs in Mandarin politely asking visitors not to stand on the garden beds.

More visitors are coming equipped with drones to capture dramatic scenic shots, and in Tekapo signage and leaflets warn visitors about restrictions on their use.

* Sophie-Claire Violette works for Skydiving Kiwis and the 10 year-old Chinese girl jumped with the Ashburton-based company, not with Skydive Auckland as reported earlier.