Direct Davao-Xiamen flight launched

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – China is working on improving bilateral ties with the Philippines as Xiamen Airlines opened Wednesday night direct flights between Davao City and Xiamen. A second flight is expected on Wednesday.

The new direct flight between Davao City and Xiamen comes as President Duterte said he will open up more business opportunities with China as well as Russia, particularly in the field of communication and travel. 

There were about  80 Chinese businessmen and tourists in the flight of Xiamen Air, described as “trying the market” or an exploratory flight.

 Xiamen Airlines currently flies direct between Xiamen and Manila (since 2015) and Xiamen and Cebu (since early 2016). 

The new direct service between Davao and Xiamen shows that Davao City is a viable market for Chinese tourists, especially the VFR tourist sector or the Visiting Friends and Relatives category, explained Department of Tourism (DOT) Mindanao OIC Eden David.

With the connectivity of Davao to Xiamen, the city stands to gain as other feeder markets can fly through Xiamen as hub.?China ranks fourth in foreign arrivals coming to Davao, with around 10,000 from January to March 2016. 

For the guests from Xiamen on the inaugural flight, the beach holiday and visit with friends and relatives were the main reasons for their visit.?

The new route was reportedly tackled by Chinese tour operators in a visit in Davao City earlier this month. 

In 2013, DOT created the Route Development Team whose functions are to promote the country as a multi-gateway in Asia and to improve air connectivity from major tourist source markets to the Philippines.

China provided the biggest inflow of international travelers to Southeast Asian with over 13 million tourists in 2014, representing the biggest source of traffic to most ASEAN member-countries.

The East Asian region – representing the countries of Korea, Japan and China – comprises the largest source markets for the Philippines, constituting 49.2 percent of total international visitor traffic in 2015, and will continue to be the leading source markets in both the short- and medium-term periods as air seat capacities are sufficient to accommodate larger traffic volumes.

China is expected to overtake Japan as the third largest source market, as the overall number of outbound Chinese is expected to grow at an annual rate of 5.5 percent, reaching 97 million outbound Chinese travelers by 2023.

Crucial to increasing arrivals from mainland China is expanding the Philippine presence, including Xiamen for Davao.

The dominant reason for visiting the country has traditionally been for leisure and holiday (56.37 percent), considering the popularity of island and coastal destinations. The second purpose is for visiting friends and relatives at 8.80 percent, closely followed by the third segment that identified business as their main purpose of travel (7.59 percent).

The average length of stay of international visitors to the country grew from 8.0 nights in 2010 to 9.9 nights by 2015. These figures are one of the longest in ASEAN. They are led by visitors from the US at 12.4 nights, while Korean visitors stayed for a period of 5.4 nights in 2015.

A recent report from Oxford Economics’ “The Future of Chinese Travel“ cites that China has become the largest source market for major urban cities in Asia, since 70 percent of Chinese international travel is to major city destinations (excluding travel to Macau and Hong Kong). 

The report further states that destinations with easier access and involving simpler visa policies are set to gain the most. Travel facilitation reforms affecting Chinese   nationals show that these reforms yielded an average growth premium of 19.9 percent. A more efficient system of processing visa applications, particularly for group travel, should be studied. 

Expanding the geographical scope of our marketing efforts by tapping into the central part of the Chinese mainland, particularly in the population-rich cities of Chengdu, Sichuan and Kunming, will also contribute to a larger market base.