Hainan attracts more tourists with increased air routes

Hainan Province launched and resumed 30 international air routes in 2016, covering the countries and regions along the Belt and Road routes including Russia, Kazakhstan and Vietnam, Chinanews.com reported.

The province, which now operates a total of 52 international routes, attracts more tourists from across the world.

According to Hainan Provincial Tourism Development Commission , Hainan received 60.24 million tourists in 2016, generating 67.21 billion yuan in tourism revenue. The province, with 749,000 overnight inbound tourists in the year, saw its foreign exchange earnings from tourism reach approximately US$350 million, a year-on-year increase of 41.13 percent, a five-year-record-high growth .

In recent years, Hainan has taken plenty of measures to promote its inbound tourism market. For instance, it has increased the subsidy for civil aviation passenger transport and encourages local tourism enterprises and charter flights operators to open new overseas flights and routes.

It is expected that the number of inbound tourists to Hainan this year will increase by more than 5 percent year on year.

Sun Ying, director of Hainan Provincial Tourism Development Commission, stated that more overseas flights and routes, including those to Japan, Australia and Germany, will be opened later and promotions would be carried out in major markets such as Russia, Japan and South Korea.