China biz leaders to offer insights to NZ tourism

WELLINGTON - Top executives from leading travel and communications-related industries in China and Southeast Asia will gather in Auckland this month to give New Zealand tourism operators an insight into building their Asia business.

The Auckland Airport Asia Summit 2013 is set to feature key speakers from China Southern Airlines, China Airlines and Malaysian Airlines, as well as world-leading organizations such as China Union Pay and Sina Weibo.

The summit on April 19 is part of Auckland Airport's Ambition 2020 strategy being developed with airlines and the travel industry to grow New Zealand's share from high growth markets, particularly out of Asia, said Auckland Airport general manager aero commercial Glenn Wedlock.

"The fast growth and rapid change in behavior we are experiencing in key markets in North and Southeast Asia, such as China, Indonesia and India, is simply mind-blowing," Wedlock said in a statement Tuesday.

"We need to ensure we adapt and cater for changing consumer demand - both now and for the future - to ensure we grow at a growth rate of over 5 percent."

Among the speakers would be Ken Hong, general manager marketing strategy for Sina Weibo, the Chinese social networking service with more than 500 million registered users and almost 50 million daily users.

China, India and Indonesia were becoming "the largest e-commerce markets of the future," he said.

James Yang, South Pacific chief representative of China Union Pay, would be a keynote speaker.

"China Union Pay is already second globally only to Visa in terms of combined debit and credit card purchase volume," he said.

"This, combined with the fact that total bank cards issued by Chinese banks is growing rapidly past 3.5 billion, as well as Union Pay's planned global expansion, means the insight that Mr Yang can provide at the summit will be invaluable for the industry."

The one-day summit is being held immediately prior to Trenz, New Zealand's main tourism industries showcase.

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