Latest / Best of Business / Brad Olsen: Infometrics principal economist on Air New Zealand boosting travel capacity into Japan

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Brad Olsen: Infometrics principal economist on Air New Zealand boosting travel capacity into Japan · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk ZEDB. Follow
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  Speaker 2: In New Zealand has announced a berg push into Asia.
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  Speaker 2: They're going to add thirty thousand seats to the Tokyo
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  Speaker 2: route between November and March. The chief executive, Greg four
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  Speaker 2: And made it to Japan just in time for the announcement,
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  Speaker 2: says they're going to be flying more Boeing Triple sevens
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  Speaker 2: to Tokyo, which allows them to add the seat capacity.
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  Speaker 2: Brad Olsen is Infametrix principal economist, Hey Brad, Good Evening, Brad,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I reckon not enough of us realize what
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  Speaker 2: a cool destination Japan actually is.
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  Speaker 3: No, but I think a lot of us want to
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  Speaker 3: and it is interesting. You know. Greg Floran was talking
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  Speaker 3: at this announcement and saying, look, it's we're putting on
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  Speaker 3: more planes because there's more demand. New analysis out today
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  Speaker 3: from the Asian New Zealand Foundation shows that that's actually
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  Speaker 3: true of a lot of Kiwis. Are the top destination
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  Speaker 3: for Kiwis that Kiwis are interested in visiting is Japan?
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  Speaker 3: Are whopping? Sixty six percent of us want to head
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  Speaker 3: over and have a bit of a look. Also a
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  Speaker 3: great time to do it, you know, when the ends
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  Speaker 3: a bit weakened, it's a bit cheaper to go over
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  Speaker 3: I myself was over there earlier this year. It was fantastic.
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  Speaker 3: There's so much culture, There's so much I mean the food,
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  Speaker 3: let's be clear. The Foundation's results also showed that us
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  Speaker 3: kiwis we're keen on going and having a look at food.
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  Speaker 3: Mostly our culture and all the other bits are important,
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  Speaker 3: but food's a real big one for us. But it's exciting.
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  Speaker 3: I think the other thing, right is it's not just
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  Speaker 3: Japan obviously the Prime minister's there at the moment, but
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  Speaker 3: in New Zealand also wanting to add more capacity into
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  Speaker 3: a number of other roots over that sort of winter
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  Speaker 3: period in parts of Asia. So it's just opening up
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  Speaker 3: those opportunities at a time when New Zealanders are becoming
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  Speaker 3: more confident understanding what's happening in Asia and by the looks,
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  Speaker 3: so that we really do want to get there and
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  Speaker 3: have a look ourselves.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. So I mean it's one thing to go over
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  Speaker 2: there and have a fantastic time, but we want their money,
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  Speaker 2: So what can we get from them?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I mean we suddenly get a lot from them already.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, yes, we're trying to get more of those
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  Speaker 3: tourists coming through, certainly from Japan. I think it's only
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  Speaker 3: at about half of those pre pandemic levels if you
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  Speaker 3: look at some of the trade numbers that we get
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  Speaker 3: from them. I mean, Japan's like our fourth biggest trading
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  Speaker 3: partner over the last year. So again, you know, huge
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  Speaker 3: in terms of those opportunities and something that you know
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand when it comes to trade, we are thinking
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  Speaker 3: a little bit more strategically going forward at Japan's also
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  Speaker 3: the friendliest country in Asia if you ask in New Zealanders,
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  Speaker 3: whereas the likes of China, which is still the most important.
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  Speaker 3: It's got the greatest influence, a total of eighty two
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  Speaker 3: percent of kiwis reckon that China is the most influential country,
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  Speaker 3: but they're sort of a bit more of a split
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  Speaker 3: over is its friend or foe. It's obviously got a
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  Speaker 3: big influence, but a bit more of a split or
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  Speaker 3: mixed view. So I think it is interesting we're becoming
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  Speaker 3: more nuanced, We're getting out and about across the world,
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  Speaker 3: and I think it's encouraging to see not only government
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  Speaker 3: but private sector who are looking at some of these
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  Speaker 3: numbers and going actually, there's real business opportunities. We can
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  Speaker 3: get Kiwi's over there to experience it. We can get
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  Speaker 3: people from over in Asia here to New Zealand to
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  Speaker 3: buy our products, to see what's going on. It's all
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  Speaker 3: a good news story to the.
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  Speaker 2: Moment, Brad, when you went over, did you go over
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  Speaker 2: for the food, like the culture experience? Did you go skiing?
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  Speaker 3: I didn't go for the skiing only because I'm a
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  Speaker 3: house and safety recify go skiing, So I went for
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  Speaker 3: all the other opportunities there trying to do some of
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  Speaker 3: that sort of stuff, you know, but food and culture
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  Speaker 3: was much more important to me.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's pretty cool. The hotel rooms are tiny a.
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  Speaker 3: They are, but to be fair, there's so much to see.
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  Speaker 3: You don't need to be in the hotel rooms. But
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  Speaker 3: you know, you go back in for your sleep and
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  Speaker 3: then you're up early in the morning, but especially because
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  Speaker 3: a little bit of jet leg, you go and find
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  Speaker 3: you know, a seven eleven to go and grab something from. Quickly,
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  Speaker 3: you go for a walk around, you find another restaurant.
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  Speaker 3: I mean there's ram and galore. You don't you can
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  Speaker 3: order it all from a machine on the side. I
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  Speaker 3: mean it is fantastic. And look, we are seeing more
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  Speaker 3: kiwis now, so they're heading over compared to pre pandemic.
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  Speaker 3: Given that a two thirds of us want to go
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  Speaker 3: to Japan, I think there'll be a lot more of
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  Speaker 3: us looking snap those tic contuctions.
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  Speaker 2: Are they still smoking inside?
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  Speaker 3: I didn't see any of that personally, I think, I
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  Speaker 3: mean there's a lot more sort of I felt there
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  Speaker 3: was a lot sort of more respect that with some
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  Speaker 3: of those things. You know, people were definitely smoking in
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  Speaker 3: more designated areas, a bit more outside. Definitely not as
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  Speaker 3: hardcore as I think it probably would have been in
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  Speaker 3: the nineties.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, nope, or even in the twenty tens. I'll tell you, Brad,
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  Speaker 2: Thank you mate, Really good to talk to you. Brad
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  Speaker 2: Olsen and for Metrix principal economist.
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