“Discover China on a Sister City Goodwill citizens’ tour”

Winning a Gold Award at the New Zealand Sister Cities Conference

Category:

Best Business or Commercial Project

The organisation submitting the entry:

Christchurch China Sister Cities Committee

 “Discover China on a Sister City Goodwill citizens’ tour”

Christchurch City has two relationships with China, under the sister cities programme. These are managed by a very active community committee in conjunction with the Councils’ International Relations desk.
The older of the relationships is with Gansu Province. This was previously classed as a ‘friendly relationship’ but now has full Sister City status. The connection came about at the request of Rewi Alley, a son of Canterbury, who is one of the 10 Westerners most recognized for their support of China during a period of upheaval and change. The Christchurch-Gansu province relationship was formalised in 1984 by the then Mayor Sir Hamish Hay. Today the relationship has an educational, cultural and tourism emphasis.
The second is with the city of Wuhan in Hubei province. A Sister City agreement was signed by the mayors on 4th April 2006. Former Mayor Gary Moore was a prime mover to get the relationship established. Today the relationship is maintained on cultural and educational levels, with the Canterbury Development Corporation having been very active in managing the economic side of it.
Over the years, the committee has looked at ways that it could fulfill the worldwide Sister Cities mandate of promoting and enhancing people to people diplomacy between Gansu and Wuhan. Developing a Goodwill Citizens Tour evolved as one way to achieve this objective. The first such tour took place in 2005 with former committee Chairman Bill Studholme leading a tour party of fourteen Cantabrians.
Putting a Citizen’s tour together is a very demanding project for a committee of volunteers. As well the interruption of the Christchurch earthquakes meant that some of our projects were put on hold.
By 2014 there was more momentum for our various projects. Coupled with this was the fact that 2014 was the thirtieth anniversary of the Christchurch Gansu relationship. A decision was made by both the Council and the Sister City committee that in 2015, we should run both a Mayoral Business Tour and a Citizens Tour. The Mayoral Tour would be led by the Mayor Leanne Dalziel and include business and education leaders, business owners looking to establish markets in China and representatives from the tourism sector. The Citizens Tour would follow a similar model to that developed for the 2005 tour focusing on people to people diplomacy and introducing a new group of kiwis to China.
The two tours took place con-currently with their itineraries intersecting at intervals. The most important of these was to all be in Gansu to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of that relationship.

In 2016, interest generated by the 2015 tour made a further tour viable. This was certainly helped by including Tibet in the itinerary. The main formal event for this tour was to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Christchurch’s relationship with Wuhan.
As the concept of a Sister Cities led Goodwill Citizens Tour was developed it became evident that such tours could be a source of funding for other projects. By the time of the third tour in 2016, so this turned out to be.
Outline and Description
Objectives:
This project has multiple objectives some of which have already been alluded to. In summary, these are:
• In line with the Sister Cities movement’s mission; to develop opportunities for people to people diplomacy.
• To introduce a new group of kiwis to China to learn about its people, its culture, to see and understand the speed of development that has taken place in the last forty years and to see something of the country’s natural beauty.
• To visit both Gansu and Wuhan to re-kindle existing relationships
• To meet with those at Foreign Affairs office personnel and other institutions with whom we work with on various projects.
• To visit the best tourist highlights China has to offer as well as people and places off the normal tourist routes.
• To build a pool of former tour party members who understand the work of the Sister City Committee and who then will speak well of it in the wider community or who could provide help with a committee project if needed.
• For former your party members to be a source of future committee members.
• To provide a tour that is both memorable and pleasurable.

Developing the model for a successful Sister City led Citizens Tour
This project was led by committee Chair Bernard Duncan, who handled the development of the programme and lead the 2015 and 2016 tours. Following is some of the detail that needed to be developed for the tours to be successful.
• The original 2005 tour served as a guide.
The development of an itinerary of the right length at the right price crucial to make it attractive to potential participants. We settled on a thirty-day tour with an in-China only price of $NZ6,800 on a shared room basis.
• Promotion of the tours has been generally by ‘word of mouth’. This has helped to get the right mix of people taking part who are able to all get along with each other. Maintaining Tour Party harmony is essential!
• To manage the International Travel and in-China components the following structure has evolved. A travel agent is identified and provided with the required dates of travel to and from NZ. Tour party members then deal directly with this agent to organise and pay for their travel to China. With the help of the NZ China Friendship Society we have been put in touch with a China based travel agent and tour leader who specialises in leading kiwi tour parties. This is Eno Wang Fang of Red Earth Tours. Eno, in conjunction with the tour leader, designed the detail of the tours, making suggestions about what to see, which route to take and preferred modes of transport. She then made all bookings to our requirements and then was our Tour Party Leader for the full duration of the tour.
• A tour party booklet was developed to include the itinerary, details of each place to be visited, a route map and details of each of the tour party members.
• Having Eno Wang fang performing the role of both a travel agent doing the bookings as well as leading the tours gave the tours a more intimate feel than that which might be provided by a typical travel agent.
• Attention to detail has contributed to the success of the tours. For example, we only use hotels who are within walking distance of shopping streets or markets, who are 4 star or more, who can provide a western breakfast and who have Wi-Fi. This allows tour party members to go exploring on foot if they wish and to get off to a good start each day having attended to their email.
• The price charged tour party members covered all expenses including travel, accommodation and all meals. The only items required to be covered themselves were the Chinese visa cost, travel insurance and the international travel to China.
• The committee managed the budget, currency conversion and funds for the in-China component of the tours. In setting the in-China tour price the committee were mindful that it needed to be competitive, that it allowed the tour party leaders cost of travel to be fully paid for, that it added a margin for currency fluctuation and that it was at a level which provided a small profit to the Sister City Committee.
• The committee acted as banker for the in-China component of the tours. About $110,000 passed through the committee’s account, which was reconciled and balanced and subject to the scrutiny of the full committee.
• As a wrap-up of the 2016 tour a calendar with photos of highlights of the tour was prepared and sent to all tour party members.
• The committee now has a blueprint should it wish to provide further citizen’s tours to China.
Community Participation:
About 18 people participated in each of the 2015 and 2016 tours. Most had limited knowledge or experience of China. Since their return, they have all become friends of and advocates for the work of the Christchurch China Sister Cities committee and the wider sister cities movement within New Zealand. They all continue to reminisce about what a great tour they had the privilege to be part of. Several have become members whilst other have used their networks to support our projects. One provided considerable support for the restoration of the Wuhan bell project

Awareness:
The tours have provided the impetus and additional revenue for the committee to develop and pursue other programmes which meet the vision and values of the committee. They have also helped in the development of people to people diplomacy, and provided opportunities for people who may not otherwise have been able to experience China at a grass roots level as opposed to the more commercialised offering from the travel industry.
This also has given the committee a blueprint/template from which it can promote future tours, combined with the testimonials of those who were on the 2015 and 2016 tours. The committee now has the opportunity to present to the wider market, and is dedicated to raising the awareness of the Christchurch China sister cities committee and the sister cities movement as a whole.
Benefits
The value of developing a documented replicable model for China tours allows the committee to move its China relationship forward, whilst meeting both its vision and aims. This will also provide the committee with an additional revenue stream so that it can develop other initiatives without being reliant on one source of funding.

An example of this is that the profit from the 2016 tour has allowed the committee to make a contribution of $6000 to the cost of reprinting the biography of Rewi Alley, written in 1997 by his niece Philippa Reynolds. The committee is the publisher of the book.
Acknowledgements
Our in-China tour guide Eno Wang Fang contributed greatly to the success of the tours. The skill and attention to detail she brought to her role was greatly respected and admired by tour party members. As she and tour party members got to know each other she became a window for the tour party to better understand the every day family life and customs of the Chinese people. Tour party members often comment that these insights made the tours even more memorable.
The main driver behind this tour programme, from conception, development, implementation and execution has been mostly that of committee Chair Bernard Duncan. Full credit is given by the committee to him for the hours involved in developing this tour into a model that serves the community, the committee and the sister cities movement in a way it was envisaged, while at the same time meeting the demands of a community and its stakeholders where it is sustainable, replicable and has the ability to provide a funding avenue if called upon for future projects.
Supporting Material
Additional material is included to demonstrate the scale of what has been created:
1) Proposed goodwill tour to China 2016 promotional document
2) 2016 Citizens Goodwill Tour Party booklet
3) 2016 Citizens Goodwill Tour Party calendar.