Ten thousand Chinese Amway agents will flood into Queenstown over four months in the shoulder and off peak season in 2018.

The deal is worth $50 million and was announced in Shanghai last night by Prime Minister John Key.

The all-expenses paid trip will see the tourists coming in groups of 500.

Amway is well-known, global direct-selling company specialising in beauty and healthcare products. 

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Key said it's a good example of how Tourism New Zealand can pitch this country's tourist attractions to big companies to reward its employees.

"It's one of the things we're sort of trying to pitch, we've had some success in a small way I think in some other things, but nothing of this scale.

"We know it was a very tightly fought contest, we don't know who we bet, we've got some vague suspicions it might have been Australia but we don't absolutely know.

"It's all in the out of peak time, so that's what's great about it, it's extending that shoulder period.

"You know, it's 10,000 people who come to New Zealand and spending $50 million minimum and what we'll probably see is people who ultimately come back as well."

Head of Amway China Audi Wong said Queenstown was chosen over a number of bidders for its beauty and New Zealand was chosen for its stability.

He said in some parts of the world, there's no guarantee there'll be stability there when it comes to the time for the trip to take place.

Queenstown District Mayor Vanessa van Uden was also in Shanghai for the announcement.

"It's actually a big advantage for us in terms of just getting a consistency of visitors, so you take the highs and the lows out of it and it's really encouraging to see we can get intensive visits, and a bid for business like this and actually win it," she said.