Charter Flights From China To M'sia Increasing Tremendously

PUTRAJAYA, Dec 12 (Bernama) -- The total number of charter flights from China to Malaysia has increased tremendously from 16 last year to 77 in 2011, said Tourism Minister Dr Ng Yen Yen. She said the achievement showed that Malaysia's strategy to do secondary marketing to attract tourists from China last year, had worked. "In 2011, about 20,000 visitors from China came to Malaysia via charter flights,"she told reporters after receiving a courtesy call from representatives of Henan Tourism Bureau here Monday. She said tourists from China contributed about five per cent of the total tourism receipts for this year. This year, Shenzhen Airlines provided 48 charters to Kota Kinabalu in Sabah state bringing in 14,400 passengers, eight by China Southern Airlines with 1,320 passengers and one by Malaysia Airlines from Kun Ming to Kota Kinabalu with 216 passengers, she said. "This is a very good charter record for this year. It is good because it always starts with charter flights first before becoming routine flights," she added. Ng said for the 2012 Chinese New Year holidays, about 5,000 tourists on 24 charter flights from China were expected to come to Malaysia compared to only six charter flights for the Chinese New Year holidays this year. She said besides the charter flights, direct flights from Shanghai to Kuala Lumpur, Kun Ming to Kuala Lumpur and Beijing to Kuala Lumpur would continue as usual. On the courtesy call, Ng said the one-and-half-hour meeting was to strenghten the relationship between the two parties in order to increase the number of tourists from Malaysia to China and vice versa. "I also invited them to participate in the ministry's Magic of the Night Floral Parade next July. They also invited us to participate in the World Tourism Forum in China next year," she added. -- BERNAMA