Nanhu Travel to Launch Charter Flight to Maldives Guangdong Nanhu International Travel Service has announced that the new flight on the charter route from Guangzhou to the Maldives will depart on September 26, 2009. Chen Zhichao, the deputy general manager of Nanhu Travel, said that the charter flight is scheduled to fly twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. It will only take six hours from Guangzhou to the Maldives, which is six hours shorter than taking transit flights through Kuala Lumpur, Doha, or Dubai. The charter flight will fly for one year, according to Chen. Tickets for the direct charter flight will be cheaper than those for transit flights.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TWC Representative FAM Trip to South Africa As a consequence of winning a holiday for two to South Africa at the South Africa Business Forum for Tourism last November in Shanghai, Ms. Lin YU, Managing Director of Travel World China, accompanied by her friend, departed from Shanghai Pudong International Airport by Emirates Airline on August 1st, 2009 and arrived in Johannesburg at night on the same day. They were warmly welcomed by Abre and his wife Lionie at the arrival, who acted as their guides throughout the 7-day FAM trip in South Africa.
After one night good rest in Holiday Inn Express, they were transferred to the Sun City, where they enjoyed one night lovely stay at the Lost City Palace Hotel. The rooms are elegantly decorated with fantastic pool view and breakfasts are prepared to cater for international guests, ranging from the Western to the Eastern including the traditional Chinese breakfast. They also paid a visit to the Casino, the Bridge of Time, the man-made beach and so on.
On the third day, they moved on to the airport and took the in-country flight to the mother city Cape Town. They arrived early evening with the beautiful sun set as background, the table mountain and the city itself looked cystal-clear and mysterious. After a mouth-watering meal at a local Chinese restaurant, they had a good night rest at Holiday Inn Express hotel at St. George’s Mall. In the following days, they did a lot of driving through the table mountain, visited a vineyard, had very close touch with the punguins, looked out for whales, and enjoyed the amazing view of the Cape of Good Hope.
A lovely and memerable stay at the Aquila Private Game Reserve was the highlight of the whole South Africa trip. Aquila is within easy access from Cape Town, and it’s home to the renown African Big 5. The two representatives were mostly welcomed by the Operation Manager there and this was followed with two most enjoyable safaris with one in the afternoon and one in the early morning. Aquila Private Game Reserve has established partnership with Travel World China since 2008 and started its promotion programmes in the China market eversince. Blending perfectly with the surrounding environment, its over 40 chalets can accommodate families, newly-wedded couples, backpackers and also company incentive groups. The food there was fantastic too! Aquila has not only the free roaming Big 5 which can be found during your short stya, it’s also home to large herds of game and birds. The whole experience will make you feel that you are in the middle of African land, being away from the noisy and stressful contemperary world, and give you a most relaxing and inspirational experience in life.
The 7-day trip was ended by a nice visit to the Parliament, where they were warmly received by Dolfie, Daryl and Renier. Travel World China representatives expressed their gratefulness to the sponsor – Progressive Business Forum and exchanged ideas with its Co-Convenors on the current situations and the future of the tourism industry over lunch.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Chinese maintain plans for trips to Europe A survey has been released recently in China by K&D Consulting Co. Ltd Beijing with the cooperation of a number of European tourism bureaus and travel agencies. Covered 14, 391 qualified samples, the survey has found 56.6 percent of Chinese tourists are maintaining plans for trips to Europe during the next two years despite the global financial crisis. About 44.5 percent said the downturn would have no impact on their tours to Europe. Only 25.2 percent expressed concern about the crisis, and would change to visit nearer destinations. Top ten European destinations favoured by the Chinese are France, Italy, Switzerland, Greece, the UK, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Austria and Denmark. Most of the tourists learned information about European tours from websites (79.1%). The other information sources included books (35.4%), travel agencies (34.6%), magazines (33%) and recommendation from relatives and friends (29.5%). According to forecasts by the World Tourism Organization, China will become the world's biggest market for inbound travel, and the fourth largest for outbound by 2015.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seychelles targets China as a promising market Before the Beijing Summit & Third Ministerial Conference of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, the Seychelles Tourism Seminar was held in Beijing on October 16 under the organization of the Seychelles Tourism Board and the Seychelles Embassy in China. Several high-level tourism officials and over 100 tour operators and travel agents from both China and Seychelles attended the seminar. The Republic of Seychelles, a small island in the western Indian Ocean, has targeted China as the most promising source of its tourism market. The seminar aimed to make Seychelles a familiar destination for the Chinese and pave the way for increased tourism business and partnerships, according to Maurice Loustau-Lalanne, Chairman of the Seychelles Tourism Board. "The Chinese people are searching for new experiences and new products and they can find what is truly 'another world' in Seychelles, " said Seychelles President James Alix Michel at the Seminar. "Outbound tourism in China is growing rapidly, but Seychelles is less known to the Chinese compared with other popular destinations in Africa, such as Mauritius and Maldives," said Loustau-Lalanne. Often described as "Heaven on Earth", the Seychelles archipelago comprises 115 islands in the Indian Ocean with a population of about 87,000. Tourism serves as the most important industry for Seychelles, contributing 20 percent to the country's GDP. Loustau-Lalanne said it was hoped that tourism could contribute 35 percent to the GDP in the future with more Chinese visitors. But he added that Seychelles would only target high-end customers in China as well as in other countries. "We don't want to make the holiday crowded or destroy the environment, so we make it expensive. It's a principle for our tourism promotion," Loustau-Lalanne said. The president said in his speech that the environment is their "bread and butter" and they always try to preserve the country's natural beauty. As Loustau-Lalanne said at the seminar, Seychelles received 16,000 visitors in 2008, among which only 1,000 were from China. And now they are expecting 5,000 Chinese tourists in 2010 or 2011. So far, there is no direct flight between China and Seychelles, and Chinese tourists have to go to Seychelles via Dubai, Doha or Singapore. However, direct flights would be launched in the near future according to President Michel. Seychelles Tourism Board and Beijing Tourism Administration also signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the seminar, with promises of promoting each other's tourism in Beijing and Victoria, Seychelles' capital in the next two years. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The number of Chinese tourists coming to the UAE is expected to more than double within the next 12 months as China relaxes its visa restrictions, opening up a major new source market for the recession-hit tourism industry. From September 15, travel agencies will be allowed to send tour groups to the UAE for the first time, Chinese tourism officials announced. Another 10,000 extra Chinese nationals are expected to visit the Emirates, in particular Dubai, from next month, mostly through organised tour groups and for the purposes of business travel and attending exhibitions, the officials said. The China National Tourism Administration, the government body that regulates the number of Chinese nationals leaving the country, recently relaxed the restrictions on tourist travel to the UAE and eight other countries for the first time. A spokesman at the Chinese embassy in Abu Dhabi said that previously individuals could apply for tourist visas to come to the UAE, but no official tour groups had been sent here. “Before, we had around 2,000 to 3,000 tourists a month; that is all,” the embassy spokesman said. Tourism bodies in the UAE now hope to be able to capitalise on what, according to the UN World Travel Organisation, will be the world’s biggest source market by 2020. The new policy is expected to increase China’s outbound travel by 50 per cent. Of the nine new destinations that Chinese tourists are now allowed to visit in groups, the UAE is proving to be the most popular, as there are already direct flights from Beijing to Abu Dhabi on Etihad Airways and Dubai on Emirates Airline. Michelle Chen, the deputy general manager of Hunter International Tourism, one of China’s largest travel agencies, which has an office in Dubai and another one opening in Abu Dhabi soon, said: “The UAE also has a popular and recognisable image among the people of China and is a popular destination, especially Dubai. “The UAE is a Muslim country, which for the Chinese is mysterious and exotic, as well as being very modern and open. Also, the luxury hotels are very famous, and the shopping during the big sales is very attractive to tourists.” Ms Chen said the initial number of 10,000 Chinese a month was expected to increase regularly with the targeted marketing that would be deployed in China. “The UAE was not an official tourism destination for China before,” Ms Chen said. “Therefore, the groups coming here from China before were mostly in transit, or came for business and exhibition purposes.” The Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA) was quick to capitalise on the Chinese announcement, and the capital’s business tourism suppliers are heading to China next month for the largest promotion to date of Abu Dhabi as a travel destination. The ADTA said it would meet more than 50 travel agents in Shanghai and attend the China Incentive, Business Travel and Meetings Exhibition in Beijing. Mubarak al Muhairi, the director general of the ADTA, called China “one of today’s most important markets”, and said it was crucial that Abu Dhabi be well represented at the exhibition to build awareness and increase the UAE’s share of China’s travel industry. He said China’s outbound business meetings and incentives industry was growing by more than 15 per cent a year and was valued at about US$14.6 billion (Dh53.7bn). “Chinese business delegations have been travelling to Dubai for some time now and a strong set of trading relationships now exist across multiple sectors,” Mr Talwar said. “In this context, Abu Dhabi is very well positioned to attract Chinese business travellers and MICE traffic. “In addition, the Chinese leisure traveller will be attracted by the range of leisure and cultural activities Abu Dhabi is developing.”
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