There are fears that speculation about Chinese Government political interference in a tourism event could become a self fulfilling prophecy.
The tourism industry says there is no evidence that visitation from China has been affected by the New Zealand Government decision to block Spark from using equipment produced by the Chinese manufacturer Huawei for its upcoming 5G network.
But the industry is worried continued conjecture about postponement of the official launch of the China New Zealand Year of Tourism could be damaging if it gathered momentum on social media which is a prime source of information for Chinese travellers.
Tourism industry Aotearoa chief executive Chris Roberts said a story on the Global Times website, the English language version of the People's Daily Chinese newspaper, was a case in point.
The Global Times quoted a Chinese traveller as saying he had cancelled a trip to New Zealand over our Government's stance on Huawei.
"We now have New Zealand media, reporting on Chinese media, reporting on the New Zealand media covering the issue. It's a self fulfilling cycle of concern.
"I don't think there is any likelihood of the tap of Chinese tourism suddenly being turned off, but we are in danger of creating an issue here, and creating a whole lot of negative sentiment in China and that could have an impact. "
Roberts said Tourism New Zealand promoted heavily in China where it has a relationship with Ctrip, China's largest online travel agency with 300 million users globally, "so hopefully this is a temporary blip, and there's no long term impact."
Nor was there any reason to be concerned about recent travel advisories from the Consulate-General of the People's Republic of China warning Chinese visitors coming here about robberies, a low rate of police investigation, and dangerous driving conditions.
Roberts said there had been similar warnings in the past, and the Chinese had in the past been asked to warn visitors about our difficult driving conditions.
For many years New Zealand has had Approved Destination Status (ADS), an arrangement with the Chinese Government that lets its citizens come here in tour groups.
ADS tours used dominate inbound travel from China but that has changed markedly, and about 80 per cent of Chinese tourists booked their own holidays and travelled independently.
In the year to December arrivals from China were close to 450,000, up about 7 per cent, and have been been forecast to reach 1 million by 2024.
There are signs the market is slowing and monthly December Chinese visitor numbers dropped by 3 per cent compared with the previous year.
But Tourism Export Council chief executive Judy Chen said there was no evidence that travellers were cancelling trips because of Huawei, and softening in the market was related to the economic downturn in China and the higher cost of holidaying here.
"For 10 days you can go to five countries in Europe versus New Zealand and it's two thirds the price ... that becomes the deciding factor, and they go there because it is much more affordable."
The official reason from the Chinese for postponing the year of tourism launch was that there were "scheduling" difficulties.
Asia New Zealand Foundation director Simon Draper conceded that the Chinese Government had in the past exercised influence over where its citizens holidayed, leading in a down turn in visitation to South Korea.
"Chinese as a people are rightly proud of their nation and if the Government indicates other countries are out of favour, they choose not to go there. "
But he said was a great believer in the "cock-up theory rather than the conspiracy theory" and it was better to wait and see, rather than speculate around reasons for delaying the event, and he had yet to see any evidence that China was exerting pressure on New Zealand.
Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis also rejected any suggestions that there was a political element to the event timing it and he was confident a new date would be set in the near future.
"Some people are trying to wind it up into more than it is."
However, on Wednesday, the day after the story hit the media, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern posted a YouTube video welcoming the year of tourism as an opportunity for New Zealand and China to "celebrate our friendship and to strengthen our already deep ties."
She said the year was "not all one way" because tourism was a driver of economic growth and cultural understanding for both countries.
From the Chinese side, getting more Kiwis to visit was always a key part of the event and Chinese Government Travel Agency CTS has been heavily promoting package tours through its New Zealand branch.
In September it aims to get 1000 New Zealanders to attend a special banquet and show in Xi'an, home of the famous terracotta warriors, some of which are currently on show at Te Papa as an official year of tourism event.