A 70-strong Chinese delegation will arrive in Queenstown on Tuesday, just three days after New Zealand welcomes China Southern Airlines' inaugural flight into Auckland from Guangzhou - China's third-biggest city.
That flight touches down today at 3.20pm and will be met by Prime Minister John Key.
The three-times-a-week link is being hailed by Tourism New Zealand's tourism operations general manager, Paul Yeo, as more likely to carry independent "high yield" travellers who will stay longer and spend more than Chinese tour groups.
A special early-morning flight from Auckland will deliver airline VIPs, top Chinese media and representatives from Chinese outbound tourism organisations to the resort.
The delegates will play golf at Millbrook, go on the Shotover Jet, lunch at Botswana Butchery, voyage on TSS Earnslaw and visit Arrowtown.
The group will meet local tourism operators and business people tomorrow night at a black-tie dinner at Arrowtown's Millbrook Resort, hosted by Queenstown Airport, Auckland Airport and Destination Queenstown.
China Southern Airlines is the world's fourth-largest and Asia's biggest - the new alliance with Auckland Airport will add 68,000 seats on a direct route to New Zealand.
Guangzhou is home to about 12 million citizens. It boasts the second-largest airport in China with 37 million passenger movements in 2009. By comparison, Auckland Airport had 13 million.
Queenstown Airport chief executive Steve Sanderson said Auckland Airport had been "totally committed to growing the number of direct air links with China as quickly as possible to help New Zealand get its fair share of the fastest-growing tourism market in the world".
The Queenstown familiarisation tour - part of a national tour organised by Auckland Airport - was the first step in "leveraging opportunities" presented by the arrival in New Zealand of a major new airline, Mr Sanderson said.
"This group is visiting only three New Zealand centres - Auckland, Wellington and Queenstown. It's great to see Queenstown operators work to welcome them. Our challenge as a resort is to be ready to host the Chinese visitors this delegation represents and to work to attract those visitors south," he said.
Destination Queenstown chief executive Tony Everitt also welcomed the new service.
"This will provide valuable additional capacity from Guangzhou province, a catchment of 90 million of some of China's wealthiest citizens. There has been steady growth in the number of Chinese visitors to Queenstown," he said.
