Delegation aiming to boost links

Dave Cull.
Dave Cull.
A delegation led by Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull is heading back to China this week confident of boosting tourism and education links with Shanghai.

City representatives will visit Shanghai from April 12-19 - the second trip by a Dunedin delegation in less than six months - to sign an updated sister-city relationship agreement.

The delegation will also pursue initiatives designed to attract more Chinese tourists to Dunedin and encourage exchanges and other links between the two cities' schools.

The 13-strong group will be headed by Mr Cull and deputy mayor Chris Staynes, council chief executive Paul Orders and the council's Shanghai business development manager, Ying Qin.

Representatives from the Otago Chamber of Commerce, Tourism Dunedin, the University of Otago, Otago Polytechnic and five Dunedin high schools, and Otago Museum staff and members of the Dunedin Shanghai Association, will complete the official party.

Mr Cull said the trip was a ''great opportunity'' to develop business, education and tourism co-operation between the two cities, and chamber chief executive John Christie was confident the trip would deliver results.

That included a push to add Dunedin to the itineraries of outbound tour operators in China, to encourage the growing number of Chinese visitors to New Zealand to spend a day or two in Dunedin, Mr Christie said.

The group would meet representatives from the Shanghai Municipal Tourism Bureau, as well as outbound tour operators, while in China, he said.

The push was being led by Tourism Dunedin chief executive Hamish Saxton, who had been preparing examples of tour packages to showcase Dunedin's attractions.

Mr Saxton said he would spend a day with product managers from Shanghai travel agents to teach them about Dunedin.

The meeting with Shanghai's tourism bureau would help give that push ''additional gravitas'', Mr Saxton said.

''This is about building a relationship up over time ... this is an important step on the way,'' he said.

Mr Christie said there was ''huge potential'' for Dunedin to cash in on China's growing appetite to explore New Zealand.

''We just need to get a day or two on people's itineraries when they come to New Zealand. That's the key aim for us.

''We know that one of the fastest growing tourism markets to New Zealand is coming out of China. We just want to make sure that they're also aware that there is a South Island.''

A similar move to improve educational links would also be pushed on the trip, including at a meeting with Shanghai Municipal Education Commission staff and during meetings between schools, Mr Christie said.

The aim was to improve links between Dunedin high schools and their counterparts in Shanghai, helping encourage exchanges between the two, as existed on a tertiary level between the two cities, he said.

''Some of that hard work between those institutions that's gone on over that time is now bearing quite a lot of fruit.

''We're looking to introduce high schools into that environment,'' he said.

Mr Christie said he would also represent Dunedin companies interested in expanding into China while on the trip.

The trip would also include meetings with representatives from Shanghai's municipal government, the Shanghai Museum and the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce, a visit to a technology park and the Yu Gardens, to mark five years since the development of the Dunedin Chinese Garden.

A meeting with the ANZ Bank in Shanghai would also be held to discuss ways of tapping into their wealthy clients, as part of a push to encourage investment in Dunedin, Mr Christie said.

chris.morris@odt.co.nz

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