Exploring Chinese Senior Travellers’ Motivations and Experiences in Culturally Immersive Wellness Tourism in New Zealand

Abstract

This study explores the motivations, expectations, and experiences of Chinese senior travellers engaging in culturally immersive wellness tourism in New Zealand. Addressing the limited research at the intersection of senior, wellness, and cultural tourism, it adopts an interpretivist qualitative design. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in Mandarin with ten Chinese travellers aged 55 and above who had visited New Zealand, and the data were examined through thematic analysis. The findings show that family connections, nature-based relaxation, safety, curiosity about local lifestyles, and imagined possibilities for later life were key travel motivations. Participants understood wellness primarily through clean air, natural scenery, emotional relaxation, safe food, comfortable accommodation, and a slower pace, rather than through formal wellness products. Cultural immersion was experienced mainly through everyday encounters with local homes, supermarkets, small towns, food, neighbourhoods, and residents. Although New Zealand was generally perceived as safe, peaceful, and senior-friendly, language difficulties, transport and driving concerns, food preferences, physical limitations, cultural unfamiliarity, and cost constrained participants’ independence and depth of engagement. The study broadens wellness tourism beyond commercial services and highlights the culturally situated, family-mediated nature of senior travel. It recommends more accessible transport, Mandarin-language support, flexible itineraries, familiar food options, and culturally sensitive experiences for Chinese senior visitors.