Over 7,000 artists and workers in the northern Chinese city of Harbin have been working around the clock putting the finishing touches to the annual Ice Festival grounds
Over 7,000 artists and workers in the northern Chinese city of Harbin have been working around the clock putting the finishing touches to the annual Ice Festival grounds Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon

China tops the charts of those nations whose citizens wanting to visit New Zealand. The Tasman country, which is home to Maori people, the Kiwi bird and the Lord of the Rings movies, is attracting more Chinese people. According to New Zealand's immigration officials, it has been processing an average 1000 visas for the Chinese people every day. Commenting on the Chinese influx to New Zealand, Bruce Ballast, deputy director of visas for Asia noted: "No matter if it is tourists, exchange students, or applicants looking to reside in New Zealand, China is the main source of new arrivals."

Top Priority

Ballast explained the significant role China is playing in New Zealand immigration. He said China is the country where the immigration office also has a profound focus. In the past three years, applicants from China, who are looking to immigrate to New Zealand have increased by 80 percent and the growth continues at the rate of 30 percent per annum, reported the new portal NangFam.

Ballast also shared the statistics on how the immigration department has augmented the visa requests from China. In 2013, the New Zealand department of immigration processed 304,475 applications from China. This meant, barring the holidays and days off, the immigration offices processed 1000 applications a day. For this, the department garnered more resources to take care of the demand. Out of the staff strength of 1,400, almost 800 personnel have been allocated for visa processing, in which 180 workers are fully dedicated to processing Chinese visa applications.

Surge In Visitors

The surge in visitors from China was also highlighted by the latest stats by New Zealand government. It revealed that visitors from China were up by almost 50 percent compared to the arrivals in November 2013. On an average, the annual growth of Chinese visitors to New Zealand has been 8 percent. The arrivals from China numbered 27,200 in Nov 2014 and it was a record, according to Statistics New Zealand, reported Shanghai Daily. "China is the second-biggest source country for visitors to New Zealand," noted population statistics manager Vina Cullum.

Some dip in arrivals from China was reflected in previous years. It was caused by the introduction of a new tourism law in China, which hit the sale of tour packages. Much of the growth from Chinese arrivals in New Zealand has been contributed by cities of Beijing, Guangdong and Shanghai. New Zealand had 2. 84 million total visitor arrivals in 2014, which showed a 5 percent annual jump, with the biggest numbers coming from China, Australia and the United States.

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