NZ, China in bid to end tour scams

New Zealand's government tourism agency is working with Chinese authorities to raise awareness of potential souvenir scams aimed at Asian tourists, a senior official said on Wednesday.

With two companies and two of their managers fined last month for mislabeling and overpricing souvenirs, and more prosecutions imminent, Tourism New Zealand is spreading the message that exploitation will not be tolerated, said general manager corporate affairs, Chris Roberts.

"We have communicated with authorities in China and we believe Chinese visitors will be pleased to know that New Zealand does not tolerate exploitation of our international guests," Roberts said in an e-mail interview.

"These cases involved Chinese businesses exploiting Chinese and other Asian visitors, and we are working with the travel trade here and in China to raise awareness of the issue and of the companies and individuals involved."

Tourism New Zealand shared feedback from tourists with law enforcement authorities in the country in the lead-up to the convictions, which were announced by New Zealand's Commerce Commission on Tuesday.

The prosecutions followed an investigation that began when police, Customs and other law enforcement agencies raided 10 premises in the geothermal resort town of Rotorua and one in Auckland in August 2011.

Organized groups of tourists from the Chinese mainland, South Korea and Taiwan were taken to some of the premises and sold items such as alpaca rugs and merino or alpaca duvets, said a statement from the commission.

Hefty fines

Top Sky Holdings Ltd was fined NZ$140,000 ($117,805) and its managing consultant, Haidong Chen, NZ$24,500 after the company's Rotorua shop offered alpaca rugs imported from Peru that had been re-labeled as "Alpaca New Zealand, 100% Baby Alpaca, proudly made in New Zealand by Alpaca New Zealand."

The rugs were priced between NZ$4,000 and NZ$8,000 each, when Peruvian alpaca rugs are sold elsewhere for between NZ$1,000 and NZ$1,600 each.

Kiwi Wool Ltd was fined NZ$84,000 and its managing director, Jinming Chen, NZ$10,500 for making and selling woolen duvets with labels stating they were "100% pure alpaca wool" when the alpaca wool content was just 20 percent, or that they were "100% New Zealand merino lamb wool," when the wool content was not merino.

The duvets cost about NZ$70 to make.