KUCHING - Sarawak is working with Air China and Xiamen Airline on proposals to operate direct flights between Chinese cities and the state, The Star reported.
State Urban Development and Tourism Minister Datuk Wong Soon Koh said such direct air links would be a boost to attract more Chinese tourists to the Land of the Hornbill.
He said the ministry was also discussing with Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines and Silk Air to come up with competitive airfares or tour packages to draw holidaymakers from mainland China.
Both SIA and Silk Air now have direct air links between Singapore and five Chinese cities while MAS flies to nine destinations in China.
"We hope to bring in more Chinese tourists either through Singapore or Kuala Lumpur," Wong told reporters at his office at Bangunan Masja.
Silk Air had recently started four weekly flights between Singapore and Kuching.
Wong has just returned home after leading a 17-member delegation, comprising tourism officials and tour operators, on a 10-day tourism promotion mission to Xiamen, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Shanghai and Beijing.
He said Sarawak received some 10,000 visitors from China every year.
Wong said that unlike Europeans who knew Borneo and Sarawak "quite well", the Chinese nationals had little knowledge about the state.
"We find that the Chinese, especially city-dwellers, are interested in nature, and Sarawak is an ideal destination for them," he added.
Wong said the state would also target the large expatriate population in major Chinese cities (about one million in Shanghai alone) in its tourism promotion.
He said while the state had published a special 32-page colour tourism brochure in Chinese to promote Sarawak in China, advertisements would also be placed in local newspapers there.
The state would also invite travel writers and tour operators from China to visit key destinations in Sarawak.
"We need to make Sarawak better known to the Chinese market," Wong said.
Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin
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