How Embracing Chinese New Year Can Enhance Business Diversity

How Embracing Chinese New Year Can Enhance Business Diversity,

With Chinese New Year just around the corner, how can New Zealand businesses broaden their demographic and accommodate for such an incredible celebration?

Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, is a grand celebration that spans over 15 days from the date of the first full moon in a calendar year, because it follows the lunar cycle the date varies from year to year. With vibrant red to signify happiness, success, and good fortune paired with yellow representing earth and royalty to name a few, Chinese New Year is brought to life by its magnificent large-scale decor, brilliant entertainment, superb food, and intricate decorative displays.

Why local businesses should take part in Chinese New Year celebrations.

According to the NZ 2018 Census, 247, 770 out of 707,598 Asian population identify as Chinese which is an overall 35% of the Asian population in New Zealand, of which 43% are employed full time in high-income jobs (NZ Stats, 2018)

Chinese New Year is of great importance in the community as it provides the chance for families to gather together. Spend valuable time with one another and buy gifts to show their love bringing immense joy into each other’s lives. This, in turn, has resulted in monthly arrivals from China typically peak in January or February each year, depending on the timing of Chinese New Year,” population indicators manager Tehseen Islam said (StatsGovt, 2018)

Chinese New Year is an incredible opportunity for all types of businesses. Restaurants with their mouth-watering foods, talented entertainers, event decor you name it!

How has this increased business revenue for New Zealand?

International visitor spending hit $11.1b last year with spectacular growth from the Chinese, highlighting our dependence on that market. The spending between Jan to Feb increases due to the great influx of Chinese people who accounted for 448,000 of the 3.9m visitor arrivals in 2018. The number of visitor arrivals from other parts of Asia such as Hong Kong and Taiwan increases in January 2020, most likely due to the Chinese New Year timing.

How will 2021s celebrations differ from the rest?

As we are aware, COVID-19 has resulted in a large drop in numbers of international arrivals in New Zealand. Evidence from 2020 indicated that visitor arrivals from China dropped roughly 40 percent compared with the same seven-and-a-half weeks in 2019 and 2018. There were 20,200 visitor arrivals from China in the week ending 26 January, but this fell to under 1,000 in the week to 23 February.

How can we help combat this loss?

Since travel is not accessible at the moment, we need to focus our efforts on alternative security of revenues. We know that this time of year results in an influx of spending and engagement with customers who participate in the Chinese New Year, so what works? Gifts bring an abundance of joy and allow New Zealand families to feel more connected with overseas families. Your goal should be to think out of the box to generate that revue in another way. Have your store stand out in a mall with an activation drawing people in by showing your support of their holiday, promotions come at a cost and due to covid this may not be a smart business decision, so invest in standing out! Stunning themed decor and catering for your customers can all help you increase your business’s reach.

But what is the greatest benefit from increasing your demographic net?

It helps to close the bridge between different cultures and increases business diversity to portray an overall positive cultural collaboration.

Look at the big picture.

Collaboration is the future, so how can social networking enhance your reach?

Westernized countries such as New Zealand follow an individualistic-way-of-life approach in comparison to Asian communities who commonly follow the collective approach. By your business taking the time to focus on inclusivity bridging the gap between westernized and Asian groups, we are opening our doors to growth opportunities.
Chinese New Year is the perfect opportunity to show your support by expanding your reach by offering your unique services and capabilities to make Cultural collaboration especially with Chinese New Year is an opportunity for businesses to expand their market to ensure they are entering the New Year two steps ahead. This will help develop relationships with a fast-growing population.

But it needs to start with YOU! You need to be the ones to open the doors, put yourself, your business, or your brand in the spotlight and say hey, we accept you, and we are here for you, let’s celebrate your beautiful culture together.

We are here to help! If you want to have a chat about your ideas and how to implement them, we are the guys for you! We’ve created a mood board for you to have a glance at!