Tourism Update reports from Beijing
They are calling SAA’s direct service to Beijing, which was inaugurated yesterday, “The Golden Bridge”.
With China already South Africa’s largest trading partner,the relationship was about to move to a new level, SAA chairperson, Cheryl Carolus, said here. The new service chops the travelling time between China’s capital and Johannesburg from about 20 hours to under 15.
SAA is aggressively marketing its service to Johannesburg here as the gateway for China not only into SA but also as the gateway to the 20 destinations it serves in Africa and as the strategic hub for China into South America.
The service is three times a week (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in both directions) but SAA would like to see that increased to daily as soon as possible. SAA is using the Airbus A340-600 on the route with 42 lie-flat seats in business class and 275 in economy.
There are no plans at this stage for a Chinese carrier to operate a reciprocal service but Star Alliance member,Air China, is likely to enter into a codeshare deal with SAA. This will also be significant for Shanghai-bound passengers in the south of China through SAA’s Hong Kong service.
The Beijing service will serve the northern, western and central areas of China.
SA officials and SAA board members and executives were clearly delighted to have overcome the hurdles in starting what they see as a key service for the future.
Minister of Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, pointed out that visitors from China to SA in the first nine months of last year had bucked worldwide trends to grow by over 18 %. He was prepared to put his head on a block that, with the direct service, growth in 2012 would be even higher.
He said the new service was part of the broader co-operation between the BRICS countries. With its São Paulo and Beijing services, SAA had placed Johannesburg in a key position. He said that this was the first step, which in the next few years would result in a massive increase in trade and tourism.
International travel involving China continued to grow at an extraordinary rate. Van Schalkwyk said China planned to build 45 new airports in the next 10 years and that, of the 800 million new tourists by 2014, 310 million of them would be Chinese.
Photo: Beijing travel agents question SAA about pricing and visas
