SCHENGEN AND THE EURO WILL FACILITATE
CHINESE TRAVEL TO MALTA
Addressing a group of 20 tour operators and
media from the People’s Republic of China at the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs on Sunday morning, Minister of Foreign Affairs Michael Frendo
emphasised that “Malta is open for business with China and welcomes
Chinese tourists in our country which will soon be part of the Schengen
and Eurozone areas of the European Union.”
Referring to the two-destination tourism,
Belgium and Malta, being promoted by Hainan Airlines in collaboration
with Air Malta and its General Sales Agent in China, World Aviation
Services and China Express, Minister Frendo said that such touristic
activity is facilitated by the fact that the Schengen visa is valid for
all the EU countries of the Schengen area and by Malta soon joining the
Eurozone which will allow, from 1st January next year,
Chinese tourists to use the same currency in both countries.
The delegation, led by Malta’s Ambassador to
the People’s Republic of China Karl Xuereb, includes representatives
from top travel players in China such as Hainan Airlines CITS, CITIC
Travel, Air China Travel Service and representatives from leading media
players such as Life Style Media Group and Kai Zhou International Media.
Also present at the address by the Minister
of Foreign Affairs Michael Frendo at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in
Valletta were Alex Zammit from World Aviation and Jhao Jing from China
Express, Air Malta’s GSA in China, Wo Tong Geng of Hainan Airlines,
Emmanuel Grech from Air Malta and Joe Bugeja of Globalair who took care
of all arrangements in Malta.
Hainan Airlines in collaboration with Air
Malta are promoting Chinese travel to Belgium and Malta using Hainan
Airlines between Beijing and Brussels and Air Malta between Brussels and
Valletta. With the support of Malta’s Embassy in Beijing the two
airlines and their representatives organized this familiarization visit
to Malta for tour operators and media companies mainly from Beijing. In
this four day “Education Tour”, delegates have visited leading hotels
and catering establishments, language schools and educational
institutions as well as Valletta, the Three Cities and Gozo and historic
sites such as St. John’s Co-Cathedral and the Tarxien Temples.
In his address to the delegates at the
historic Palazzo Parisio which houses Malta’s Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, Dr Michael Frendo said that this event is “a result of
collaboration between our Embassy in Beijing and Maltese operators in
the travel business and a clear example of the effective economic role
being played by our Embassy in Beijing.”
He recalled that he had led the largest
Maltese business delegation to Beijing earlier this year and that
Malta’s Embassy in Beijing has continued to take a proactive stance in
promoting business such as supporting English language schools and
education operators at the ICEF 2006 and 2007 and the Beijing Higher
Education Fair with presentations promoting Malta and manning and partly
financed Malta’s stand at the recent Qing Dao Tourism Fair. Furthermore
the Embassy has repeatedly featured Malta’s tourism offer at all
National Day and similar events, with Ambassador Xuereb giving numerous
interviews to general and trade media in China, including being a
keynote speaker on Malta’s tourism product at the Travel Mart Shanghai.
