Direct China flights a boon for Douglas
HELLO CHINA
DOUGLAS Shire Mayor Julia Leu says new direct flights from Cairns to mainland China is a boon for the region.
Tens of thousands of extra visitors are expected to flock to Far North Queensland after China Southern airlines announced three direct flights a week from its Guangzhou hub to Cairns.
It is the first year-round direct service from inland China to the region, and also opens up the ‘Canton Route’ for travel between Europe and Cairns.
"This is fantastic news for the region and for Douglas,” Leu said.
“We have wanted vastly improved aviation access to Asia and particularly mainland China for a long time.
“A direct year round service from Guangzhou, a huge city and major tourism hub will greatly benefit our local tourism.”
The three flights per week will deliver 33,852 seats on an A330-200 aircraft, expected to inject $30.8 million in overnight visitor expenditure in the first year and $90 million over three years.
Tourism Tropical North Queensland (TTNQ) Chair Max Shepherd said the news would provide ‘a substantial opportunity’ to grow the region’s Chinese market.
“The establishment of scheduled services from the world’s largest tourism market will connect new consumers to Australia and create profound opportunities for the Tropical North Queensland industry,” he said.
“Australia caters very well to the multi-destination visitor, but a very large proportion of the free independent traveller market is currently travelling to Guam, Singapore, Malaysia, the Maldives and Hawaii.
“The State Government investment in partnership with Cairns Airport, Cairns Regional Council and TTNQ will open this very rich vein of opportunity, not only for Tropical North Queensland, but for Australia as a whole.”
There were 218,000 visitors to Tropical Queensland from China for the year ending March 2017. Shepherd said this was an 8.8 per cent increase and represented ‘more than half’ of Queensland’s 406,000 Chinese holiday visitors.
“Direct flights will allow us to tap into the positive response from both the Chinese travel industry at the recent Australian Tourism Exchange and the rapidly growing online travel agents in China,” he said.
The first China Southern flight is expected to land in December this year.
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