Chia (seated third left) with the Tawau Chinese Chamber of Commerce committee members.
TAWAU: Direct charter flights from China to Tawau are in the pipelines as the Chinese Chamber of Commerce Tawau is in the midst of compiling tour packages to attract Chinese tourists to stay a night in Tawau prior to visiting islands in Semporna; and help boost the local economy here.
Its president, Chia Seong Fatt, said the chamber held a meeting with Assistant Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Pang Yuk Min recently and according to Pang, the direct flight between China and Tawau is not a problem.
Chia in a press conference yesterday said the only challenges were to get 180 persons locally from Tawau to visit to China and a package for China tourists to stay overnight in Tawau.
He said the chamber would need to work together with tour operators in Semporna and Tawau to come up with tour packages that would attract China tourists to stay a night in Tawau for a direct flight to materialize.
Chia said the chamber would have to negotiate and coordinate with travel agents in Tawau and work out the packages to offer to the tourists in China.
He added Pang suggested the best time to plan the maiden flight would be the coming Chinese New Year holidays, from China to Tawau with the objective to promote local attractions and to test the response from both ends.
Subsequently to maintain and continue such route if it goes well and hopefully such effort will be able to improve the sluggish economy situation of Tawau to a certain extent.
Chia said for the local tourists to China, the chamber was looking into three inland cities in China, and Tianjin, Xian and Yunnan were suggested.
However, it was felt that Xian may be the better choice of all as it has many historical sites and foods are quite similar to ours here.
On the other hand, Kunming, could the alternative of which tourists can have the option to tour two other nearby cities, Vientian of Lao and Hanoi of Vietnam besides Kunming of Yunnan, China.
He said the capacity of each flight was about 180 persons plus four metric tons of cargo space and Tawau entrepreneurs can make use of the cargo facility to export their produces to China, for example seafood products.
Chia said the proposed direct charter flight was a ‘W Model’. The first flight that brings in the Chinese tourists will return to China with Malaysian tourists.
On the fifth day, it will bring in the second group of tourists from China and bring back the first group of tourists.
In practice, Chinese tourists usually spend four days here and then return. On the eighth day, the flight will bring back the Malaysians and to ferry back the second group of Chinese tourists to China. This process will continue in a cycle and repeat itself in every four days.
He said the chamber welcomes suggestions and ideas from the locals here to help promote and help make Tawau an iconic attraction to China tourists.