Garuda To Serve Direct Flights Between Denpasar And Beijing

Beijing, Dec 26 (Antara) - The nation`s flag carrier Garuda Indonesia will start direct flights between Denpasar of Bali and Beijing to facilitate transport of growing number of Chinese tourists visiting Bali. "From Bali we could encourage Chinese tourists to visit other tourist destinations such as Lombok and Manado,"Garuda`s general manager for Beijing Asa Perkasa told Antara news agency here on Thursday. The airline will serve round trips directly between the two cities three times a week, starting early next year, Asa said. "Now 90 percent of the seat have been booked," he said Garuda already has such flight between Jakarta and Beijing four times a week . Garuda also offers charter flights to Bali and Manado from a number of cities in China such as Chengdu, Chongqin, Ningbo and Kunming in the Chinese new year in 2015 using Boeing 747-400 aircraft. In summer holidays from July 15 to August 15 charter flights are offered using A-330 aircraft from Jinan, Harbin, Xian, Shenyang and Chengzhou to Bali. Chinese tourists are now the largest in number in the world but Indonesia is not yet listed as one of China`s main tourist destinations. They visit Bali but other destinations in the country are not put in their list of areas to be visited, Asa Perkasa said More than 100 million Chinese tourists are estimated to visit other countries this year, an official of China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) Zhang Jilin said. Thei main destinations are Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea and the United States.