Wave of mainland tourists visiting Pacific isles
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail China Daily, August 1, 2014
Though there is considerable interest among Chinese tourists for trips to Pacific islands, many of these destinations still need to spruce up facilities.
There are 29 hotels with 8,451 rooms in Guam, an over-seas territory of the US, that is slowly becoming popular with Chinese tourists. High-end hotels account for 31.3 percent of the total, and there are no super-luxury hotels, according to the Guam Visitor Bureau.
The bureau plans to increase the number of hotels to 35 and have 10,091 rooms by 2020. Super-luxury hotels will account for 10 percent of the total by then, said the bureau. Fong S.Wu, a second-generation Chinese in Guam and CEO of Pago Bay Resort, who is building a luxury hotel on the island, said his hotel will have some features especially for Chinese travelers, including food, music and Mandarin services.
The hotel, which will be managed by an international luxury brand, such as Marriott International Inc, Star wood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc or Banyan Tree Holdings Ltd, will have 600 rooms, and 50 percent of them will be sold to Chinese residents.
"We want Chinese residents to be involved in investment here, and not just as tourists," Wu said. By the end of September, the number of Chinese travelers to Guam is expected to be around 20,000, which is double that of last year, officials from the Guam Visitor Bureau said.
"Thanks to the charter flights, we will see huge growth in Chinese visitors," said Pilar Laguana, marketing manager of Guam Visitor Bureau, the most important government department on the island, as tourism is a pillar industry.
Dynamic Airways LLC, a US-based carrier, has launched direct scheduled charter flights between Beijing and Guam from June 21 and the carrier flies every five days with a capacity for 235 passengers. The direct flights from Beijing to Guam take only five hours and is even shorter than trips to some islands in Southeast Asia.
"As Chinese tourists are very keen on visiting the US, we believe Guam will become one of the favorable short-haul holiday destinations," said Paul Kraus, managing partner of Dynamic Airways.
The carrier with five Boeing 767 aircraft, is also working on charter flights from smaller Chinese cities to Guam, and a route from Chengdu was launched on July 19.
"China is the No 1 visitor source market in the world, and it continues to grow rapidly," said Karl Pangelinan, general manager of Guam Visitors Bureau, "It's absolutely essential for Guam to get its foot in the door with this expanding market."
According to the Tourism 2020 plan, Chinese travelers will account for 5.7 percent of the entire tourism market on the island by 2020, which was only 0.7 percent in 2012, and if Guam can provide a visa-free policy to Chinese travelers, the number should rise to 17.5 percent with 350,000 visitors then.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)