CHINA: Ice And Snow World Jn Harbin, Heilongjiang Province Reopens

The Ice and Snow World in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, reopened for trial operation on Sunday.

Covering 600,000 square meters, the winter wonderland has more than 30 interactive entertainment areas and hundreds of events to welcome tourists.

Staff at the theme park said the warm climate in winter had posed challenges in building the park.

It took 15 days to build the ice and snow theme park with 110,000 cubic meters of ice and 120,000 cubic meters of snow.

To celebrate the anniversary, it will present former ice and snow landscapes from the past 20 years.

The number of popular 320-meter-long ice slides will increase from three to six this year. A queuing system app will be available for tourists to efficiently arrange queuing times.

In addition, Harbin has seen a record number of air passengers this year, according to the Taiping International Airport. The annual passenger throughput of the airport in the provincial capital of Heilongjiang in 2018 crossed the threshold of 20 million on Monday, a new historical high and nearly double the figure from five years ago.

Known as an "ice city", Harbin has gained international attention for its increasingly popular winter extravaganza, which features massive, elaborate ice sculptures, competitions and winter sports.

Destinations featuring snow scenery and winter sports, such as skiing, have seen a boom in tourism over the past month, according to a report by Tuniu.com, an online travel agency, on Wednesday.

The company headquartered in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, said search with keywords "snow," "skiing" and "snow view" increased by 200 percent in past half month compared with the same period of last year.

Visits booked on its platform to attractions highlighting snow scenery are expected to rise by 30 percent during the 2018 winter season and 2019 spring than that of last year, according to the report.

The report said destinations in northeast provinces remain most attractive, with Harbin in Heilongjiang Province, Jilin City in Jilin Province and Shenyang in Liaoning Province topping the list.

Lvmama.com, another online agency headquartered in Shanghai, said that reservation of snow-themed packages on its platform have risen by over 50 percent so far from early November.

Li Qiuyan, general manager with the agency's public relations department, said that destinations in Northeast China's provinces such as Liaoning and Heilongjiang attract the most travelers for their spectacular snow-covered landscape and distinctive customs.

Viewing snowy scenery and ice sculpture and experiencing winter sports like skiing are popular choices among domestic travelers, she said.

Outbound destinations famous for snow-related events including Japan, Russia, Finland and Sweden have been embraced by Chinese travelers during the winter, according to the report by Tuniu.com.

The agency said a tour package on snow-themed destinations is much more expensive. Packages to domestic attractions usually cost at least 3,000 yuan (440 U.S. dollars) while to foreign destinations they range from 6,500 to 15,000 yuan RMB.

The Ice and Snow Festival in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, has already begun with dazzling displays to see and an array of activities to experience.

The annual event has been running for 33 years in Harbin and has become one of the world’s most attractive winter tourist destinations.

Thanks to the extremely low temperatures which produce ice and snow for these attractions, the city is able to turn what used to be an energy and manufacturing economy to a money-spinning tourist economy.

The Heilongjiang Provincial Tourism Development Committee revealed that, in the first three quarters of 2017, they had received nearly 145.5 billion yuan from domestic tourist revenue. This is a significant financial increase, up around 23 percent from the previous year.

And in the third quarter of 2017, the domestic tourist revenue was approximately 62.5 billion yuan, up by even more, with a 38.46 percent increase year-on-year.

This significant increase of visitors at the festival is not only beneficial for the city’s tourism sector, but also profits other industries such as transportation, hospitality and retail.

The Ice and Snow Festival is very good for our restaurant business, which is the best during the period from mid-December to the end of February when the event is on.

Then business declines over the summer, as we get half of the number of customers compared to the winter. It’s then that we use some promotions like group buying activities to pull customers in, Liu said.

What's more is that China's most northeastern province received almost 115 million domestic tourists in the first three quarters of 2017, up by nearly 13 percent year-on-year. It’s these kinds of figures that have made the local government focus on this growing sector.

The Director of the Heilongjiang Provincial Tourism Development Committee, Xi Dongguang said: Snow and ice tourism has become an important engine of economic restructuring and upgrading and structural adjustment, and has also increased the income of some people.

In the past, Heilongjiang was dominated by an energy economy and industry, and now the tertiary industry has increased 50 percent. It has become a crucial industry leading the economic development. Tourism is the leader of the tertiary industry.

At present, snow in Heilongjiang province has turned into platinum and cold resources into hot economy.

Xi Dongguang stressed that the goal is for Heilongjiang to become the first choice destination for China's snow and ice tourism in the future, and then develop to be the landmark venue for international snow and ice tourism in the world.


Tourism Observer

EUROPE: Chinese Air Travel Shoots Up, Europe Gains A Great Deal

Europe is set to benefit from increasing Chinese air travel with extra flights and more capacity for 2018.

The continent will see a boom in capacity on flights from China, according to the latest figures from travel pattern analyst ForwardKeys.

It reports that nine new routes and one resumed route will start during the first half of 2018, and a further three are in the pipeline.

At least four China-Europe routes are already planned for the second half of this year.

This follows an expansion in Chinese flights to the US and Australia over the past two years.

ForwardKeys predicts future travel patterns by analysing 17 million booking transactions a day.

According to its statistics, by June there will be an extra 30 flights a week from China to Europe and, based on an estimation of 200 seats per flight.

This means 6,000 more seats will be available for Europe-bound Chinese travellers.

Excluding Russia, the average total number of seats available each week last summer was 150,000.

In March alone new flights include:

- Twice weekly from Shenzhen to Madrid by Hainan Airlines.

- Resumption of three times weekly flights from Shenyang to Frankfurt by Lufthansa.

- Twice weekly from, Shenzhen to Brussels by Hainan Airlines in March 2018.

Finland is benefiting from a strong Asia strategy on the part of Finnair, which announced the opening of its seventh direct Chinese route in May 2018.

Spain, the UK and Ireland are seeing a mix of increased tourism alongside healthy Chinese business investment.

This growth will be building on an already strong start to the year.

Europe had a 10% market share of the outbound Chinese market and saw a 7.4% increase in Chinese travellers during January and February this year.

Turkey recovery after terrorist attacks increased by 108.2%, and Greece by 55.7%, compared to the same period last year.

Travel in the opposite direction is also set to increase.

Flight bookings to China, in the coming six months, from the rest of the world, are 11.8% ahead of this time last year.

Bookings from Americas, which is responsible for 25% of travel to China, are currently 24% ahead of last year.

The EU-China Tourism Year was launched in Venice in January, heralded as the largest-ever official EU-wide initiative to grow Chinese tourism across Europe.

ForwardKeys chief executive and co-founder, Olivier Jager, said It seems that the EU-China Tourism Year is having a positive impact on travel in both directions.

The Chinese have been growing in confidence for international travel for some time now and that trend is being reciprocated.

Europe clearly has a lot to gain from this increased capacity because the Chinese are ready to spend money on luxury goods while on holiday, providing good opportunities for European retailers.


Tourism Observer

CHINA: Chinese Tour Operators Visit Europe

As part of the EU-China Tourism Year, major TO's from across China were hosted in Europe on a fam tour this month.

The European Travel Commission (ETC), the European association of National Tourism Boards, in partnership with the European Tourism Association (ETOA) and several European destinations, hosted the first pan-European familiarisation trip to foster inbound tourism to the European Union from China on the occasion of the EU-China Tourism Year (ECTY).

From 8 March to 15 March 2018, 70 qualified tour operators from first and second tier cities across China -including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenyang, Jinan, Chongqing, Chengdu, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Wuhan, Nanjing and Xiamen- had the opportunity to experience European destinations through and beyond its famous gateway cities.

The Chinese tour operators organised into seven clusters that followed simultaneously different transnational itineraries based on their singular interests and product portfolio.

These destination clusters included fifteen countries in the macro-regions of the Adriatic, the Balkans, the Baltic, Benelux and Central Europe.

The itineraries included visits to landmark cities, cultural and natural attractions and meetings with local business as well as experiences at lesser-known destinations that are easily accessed from those traditional gateways.

The programme commenced with the Partnerships in European Tourism (PET) conference and B2B workshop between tourism-related European companies and Chinese operators hosted by ETC, ETOA and the European Travel Agents’ and Tour Operators’ Association (ECTAA) in Berlin on 6 and 7 March.

Both initiatives the pan-European FAM trips and the Partnerships in European Tourism are part of the programme of activities prepared by the European Commission during the EU-China Tourism Year.

The ECTY aims to promote the European Union as a travel destination in China, provide opportunities to increase bilateral cooperation as well as mutual understanding and create an incentive to make progress on market opening and visa facilitation.

China is the world’s largest travel market in terms of both outbound travel and expenditure. European destinations have strengthened their position in this market, attaining 13.4 million Chinese arrivals in 2017, accounting for a share of 14% of all outbound travel from China.


Tourism Observer

NORTH KOREA: Charter Flight Opened Between Pyongyang And Dandong

A charter flight opened between Pyongyang and Dandong, a Chinese city near the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Tuesday, shortening the trip to 40 minutes.

About 50 passengers, mostly Chinese tourists and businessmen, attended the launch ceremony at the Pyongyang Sunan International Airport.

Air Koryo, a DPRK airline, will operate the twice weekly flights, taking off from Pyongyang at 9:00am local time and returning to the DRPK capital city at 11:40am.

Air Koryo has regular flights to Beijing and Shenyang, which is also in Northeast China.

The charter flight to Dandong is its third route to China.

Facing Sinuiju of DPRK across the Yalu River, Dandong in Liaoning province of Northeast China has become a transport hub connecting the two countries.

UAE: Emirates Connects China To The World

Emirates has confirmed it will introduce a four times weekly link between its Dubai International Airport hub and Yinchuan’s Hedong International Airport from May 3, 2016, with an additional onward leg to Zhengzhou’s Xinzheng International Airport. The flight will be operated by a 266-seat Boeing 777-200LR and will bring its offering mainland China to five points, adding to existing flights to Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai.

United Arab Emirates (UAE) carrier, Emirates Airline has made the surprising announcement that its next growth move into the Chinese market will be through links to the cities of Yinchuan and Zhengzhou. These destinations are certainly not household names, but they mark a consistent pattern by the airline to add capacity to Asia during the closing months of 2015 and will see the carrier pioneer long-haul network services to these markets.

Emirates has confirmed it will introduce a four times weekly link between its Dubai International Airport hub and Yinchuan’s Hedong International Airport from May 3, 2016, with an additional onward leg to Zhengzhou’s Xinzheng International Airport. The flight will be operated by a 266-seat Boeing 777-200LR and will bring its offering mainland China to five points, adding to existing flights to Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai.

Although the gateway airports to the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and Henan province were only ranked the 40th and 19th largest facilities in China by passenger traffic last year, they are located in two of China’s fastest growing cities and will now be better connected to global markets through the arrival of the Middle Eastern hub carrier.

Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia, lies to the West of the Yellow River and to the East of Helan Mountain. With a large Muslim population, it serves as a gateway connecting China to Arabic countries, and is positioned as a hub for economic and trade cooperation and cultural exchange between China and the Middle East.

Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province and a major transportation interchange for central China, is an educational, technological and economic centre. The second largest city in central China, Zhengzhou’s strategic location has enabled the city to become one of the largest economic hubs in China.

“With the opening of these new strategic routes, Emirates looks forward to contributing to the enhancement of China’s trade links with the rest of the world, in particular with the UAE and Arab world,” said HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group.

“We believe the new international air links that we are launching will help create tourism and trade opportunities for Chinese business and leisure travellers that may not otherwise exist,” he added.

With its established network across Africa, Europe and the Middle East, Emirates will connect Yinchuan and Zhengzhou with many new destinations and help boost trade and tourism flows to the growing central and western parts of China where these cities are located. Although the two destinations are currently linked, strong demand will likely lead to them being separated and served individually in the future.

The two new cities in China are the latest capacity expansion for Emirates in the Asia-Pacific region, where it now serves over 40 destinations. Another new non-stop market next year will be Brisbane, which will be linked directly from Dubai rather than with a Singapore stopover from May 2016.

Earlier this month the UAE carrier began two-class Airbus A380 service to Bangkok and will add capacity on the Dubai - Kuala Lumpur city pair from January 1, 2016 and Dubai – Taipei from May 1, 2016 when it deploys further 615-seat SuperJumbo variants. The two-class aircraft can add as much as 25 per cent more seats to the 489-seat version of the aircraft operating on most routes. Emirates is also adding capacity from Dubai to Delhi, Dhaka, Mashad, Phuket Sailkot and Manila, while this week it launched flights to Sabiha Gokcen Airport, on the Asian side of Istanbul.

But, it is clear that China will continue to see network and capacity growth from Emirates as ties between Dubai and China continue to grow stronger. A growing number of Chinese banks and businesses are establishing branches within Dubai’s business and financial districts and the city is now home to over 3,000 Chinese companies and 200,000 Chinese residents. Growth in visitor numbers to Dubai from China grew by 25 per cent in 2014 and additional routes are under discussion.

“As China's regions continue to open up to the global economy, Emirates remains keen to support this with the further expansion of air services in mainland China. In particular we’re interested in exploring the opportunity of daily services to Hangzhou and Chongqing, and a second daily service to Guangzhou,” said HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum.

There has been an increase in long-haul activities into China’s regional cities over the last ten year with notable growth in non-stop links to both Europe and North America. Alongside the big three mainland Chinese hubs, more than 15 destinations are now directly linked to Europe with new services being introduced at Chengdu (since 2006), Nanjing (since 2008), Hangzhou (since 2010), Urumqi and Xiamen (since 2011), Chongqing, Shenyang and Wuhan (since 2012), Xi’an (since 2013), Changsha and Kunming (since 2014) and Ningbo this year.

In North America the first non-stop flights outside of Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai arrived in 2012 when Sichuan Airlines commenced flights between Shenyang and Vancouver. In the last two years United Airlines has added a link between San Francisco and Chengdu, and a Xi’an service will also be added from May 2016, while China Southern Airlines now links Wuhan to San Francisco and China Eastern Airlines has regular flights between Nanjing and Los Angeles.

Yinchuan’s new non-stop link to Dubai will actually be Hedong International Airport’s second regular link to the metropolis as Sichuan Airlines introduced a twice weekly service this September using an Airbus A330. This is its only long-haul operation, although international service are also offered to Bangkok, Seoul and Taipei.

Schedule data from OAG shows that departure capacity from Hedong International has risen by an average annual rate of 51.4 per cent between 2005 and 2014 and is forecasted to grow a further 14.0 per cent this year, based on published schedules. China Eastern Airlines is the largest carrier at the airport with a 24.8 per cent capacity share in 2015 ahead of Air China (17.2 per cent), China Southern Airlines (14.9 per cent) and Shandong Airlines (10.1 per cent).

Zhengzhou’s one-stop, but direct, offering to Dubai from Xinzheng International Airport will be a key hub link for the city and will add its growing international network. Since the start of this decade over ten new international destinations have been added and multiple daily flights are now offered to Bangkok, Hong Kong, Seoul and Taipei.

Schedule data from OAG shows that departure capacity from Xinzheng International has risen by an average annual rate of 43.6 per cent between 2005 and 2014 and is forecasted to grow a further 6.2 per cent this year, based on published schedules. China Southern Airlines is the largest carrier at the airport with a 31.3 per cent capacity share in 2015 ahead of Shenzhen Airlines (10.4 per cent), China Eastern Airlines (9.0 per cent) and Xiamen Airlines (6.4 per cent).