New zealand tourism bodies eye china, south-east asia

New Zealand tourism chiefs said Monday they are expecting the number of Chinese visitors to the country to rise after "improvements" to the visa application process.

China, Malaysia and Singapore were among the few countries sending increasing numbers of tourists to the South Pacific destination in July, while established markets, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan and South Korea, were markedly down, according to figures released by the New Zealand government last week.

Even neighboring Australia saw a year-on-year drop of 3.3 percent in tourist numbers to New Zealand last month, with just 91, 664 Australians being welcomed.

Overall international arrivals were down by 3.7 percent year on year in July to 176,084, although arrivals from China were up 20.6 percent, and the figures from Singapore and Malaysia went up 17.3 percent and 74 percent respectively.

Source: English News.cn