Booking travel online is becoming ever more popular in China as consumers become more comfortable with using the internet for big purchases and banks develop necessary infrastructure to provide secure processing channels.

Tourism New Zealand's General Manager Asian Markets, Mark Frood says that while the importance of traditional trade still dominates booking habits the increased use of online presents significant opportunities to the tourism industry.
"The growing popularity of western-style retail websites is transforming ecommerce in China with consumers making the most of being able to easily compare products before making a decision.

"As a result we are seeing an increase in online travel agents, with value-conscious consumers researching the travel options and waiting for the best deal to be available before booking."

Alongside improved visa processing, this change in consumer behaviour is also leading to shortened lead times for booking travel.

Tourism New Zealand is continuing to leverage the online opportunity with digital marketing at the heart of its campaign activity. The 100% Pure You campaign, with brand ambassador Yao Chen, utilised newzealand.com to host images, video, messages and travel deals to bring the New Zealand experience to life and provide conversion opportunities for consumers. Active Considerers were attracted to the site with digital banner advertising, search engine marketing and ongoing social media activity.

"Being online enables us to engage with consumers who are actively considering New Zealand.  We are able to deliver focused messaging to them, encouraging them to book the trip they are researching and experience New Zealand first hand," says Mr Frood.

Internet researcher eMarketer predicts that with an estimated 50 per cent of the Chinese population online by 2013, business-to-consumer ecommerce sales could account for 54 per cent of total sales by 2015.

"With one of the largest populations and fastest growing consumer markets in the world, the ability to communicate with a key growth market for tourism using targeted online activity makes sense as we work to increase visitor numbers to New Zealand."