Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Alastair Crozy: Director of the New Zealand China Council discusses new visa changes for Chinese tourists

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Alastair Crozy: Director of the New Zealand China Council discusses new visa changes for Chinese tourists · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Prime Minister heading to China this week, where he'll be
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: meeting with President Shujing Ping and Beijing. Ahead of the visit,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: the government tweaked visa settings to allow Chinese travelers in
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: with a current visa who come from Australia. So in
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: other words, the Australians do the checks and we piggyback
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: off them. Alistair Crozy is executive director of the New
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Zealand China Council. With me this morning, Alista, good morning,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Good morning Ryan. We'll try to take notice of that tweak,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: because it is a tweak. We're not letting them in
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: wholesale without a visa.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Sure, we'll look overnight the evidences that they already have.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Since the announcement was made, search for New Zealand travel
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: on some of the big platforms like Sea trip has
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: increased markedly. So yes, these things although they as you say,
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: it's not removing visas altogether by any means, it's certainly
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: a splash and it will get a lot of attention
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: this week.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: That's good news. What about the because the argument, while
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: we don't just allow them and carte blanche on visa
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: free is because of the number of refugees do you
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: know what the situation is, what the outcome might be
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: if we did it.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: I won't go into that on visa settings. I mean,
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: every country's got to balance their security settings with rolling
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: out the maths of tourists and visitors, not just the China.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: We do that for many countries, and many countries do
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: that for us as well. So the main thing for
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: this week is that it's a positive step in the
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: right direction towards hopefully recovering some of those Chinese tourist
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: numbers from before COVID.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Good pr exercise for us to be up in China
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: at the moment. What about some of the tensions that
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: we've had. I mean, obviously this is going to be
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: a leader to leader or bilateral meeting between the two.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Some of the live firing drills, you know, we had
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: our navy frigates in the straight Taiwan straight last year.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: I mean, all of those things will come up.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: And from that perspective, you know, it's nothing beats a
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: face to face, is it like this? It's a chance
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: they're our prime minister to meet not just President Shei,
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: but also Premier Le Chang, and look, both sides freely
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: admit that there are going to be differences between two
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: countries like you Eland and China. This provides an opportunity
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: to discuss them face to face, and I think the
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: key thing is that both sides will remain diplomatic and
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: respectful and hopefully clear the year on some of those issues.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Where are some of the areas of opportunity, economic opportunity
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: that you think we should be tackling.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Oh, look, there's still opportunities in China across the board.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: I mean the Prime Minister is taking a business delegation
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: of almost thirty people. They're focused on everything from you know,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: your primary produce exports to your middle class consumers, not
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: just in the big cities now, but in those what
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: they call second and third te cities. They're coming up
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: fast in terms of spending power, but also taking a
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: strong delegation representing our education sector and also our tourism
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: sector as we've been discussing.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Alist appreciate your time this morning, thanks to your comments.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Alistair Crozier the executive director the New Zealand China Council.
• 3:19
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• 3:22
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• 3:25
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