In another first for our island nation, leading in-bound tour operator Rosie Holidays has sealed direct air charters that will link China’s “city of heaven” Hangzhou with Fiji, where happiness finds you.

Starting today, the first charter of 300 passengers on Fiji Airways’ Airbus 330-300 will arrive at Nadi International Airport in the lead up to the Chinese New Year holidays which this year falls on Saturday, 28 January. According to the Chinese lunar calendar, this is the Year of the Rooster.

“This will be the third year we are running these air charters from mainland China in partnership with our partners in China together with Tourism Fiji and our national airline, Fiji Airways,” says Tony Whitton, managing director of Rosie Holidays.

“This year, we will be mounting a service into a second-tier city. In the past two years, we have operated charters into first-tier cities of Beijing and Shanghai.

“These cities are big but very busy with competition. So this year we want to see how a second-tier city like Hangzhou will respond.

“Our view is these cities should not be called second-tier but rather big-opportunity cities as 54 per cent of all upscale imported USA products are consumed in second-tier cities. This is a good measure of wealth, as such cities receive a lot of Government stimulus, highways, fast trains, infrastructure and the population is very affluent. And most important, many of our competitor destinations are not in these cities marketing so aggressively.

“It will be an interesting experiment. But so far, demand for Fiji on our flights has been encouraging.

“So in this Year of the Rooster, visitors from Hangzhou will now enjoy the opportunity to visit Fiji, where happiness will find them.”

It was the famous European traveller Marco Polo who described Hangzhou as the city of heaven when he visited this eastern Chinese city in the late 13th century.

The second direct charter flight from Hangzhou to Nadi is scheduled for Monday, 30 January.

Spearheading the charter negotiations and logistics is Rosie’s general manager Eroni Puamau, and assisted by Rosie’s sales offices in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou as well as Rosie’s key tour wholesale partners in China.

“Hangzhou is one of the fastest growing cities in mainland China, very affluent and conveniently located just under one hour travel in China’s famous electronic bullet train from Shanghai,” says Mr Puamau.

“Thanks to the hard work put in by Rosie’s teams both here in Fiji and in mainland China, together with the support of our wholesale partners and Tourism Fiji, Rosie has been able to continue these air charters with our national airline three years running.”

The third consecutive year of direct air charters from one of Fiji’s fast growing emerging source markets has been welcomed by Matthew Stoeckel, chief executive officer  of Tourism Fiji.

“Visitor arrivals figures just released by the Bureau of Statistics for 2016 show that close to 50,000 Chinese tourists visited Fiji this year, representing a 22 per cent increase from the year before.

“China is our fourth largest source market and is expected to continue to grow in 2017 on the back of increased marketing and promotions in the region. Rosie’s investment in this vast and emerging market through the charter flights contributes significantly to this success in the market and importantly aligns with Tourism Fiji’s strategy to drive visitor arrivals in our low season”.

National airline Fiji Airways have been with Rosie since its first charters from China in 2015, and for airline managing director and chief executive officer Andre Viljoen, Fiji Airways is a proud supporter of Rosie’s initiative to fly in tourists in what’s traditionally Fiji’s low tourist seasons.

“We welcome this opportunity to partner with Rosie again and this time fly into Hangzhou airport in mainland China.

“We are excited about tapping into a new province and a newer catchment area for Fijian tourism.”

The Chinese tourists will stay at Fiji’s major four and five-star hotels in the Yasawas and Mamanucas and on Denarau and along the Coral Coast, based on 5 night packages. And will included tours and activities visiting traditional villages, day cruises and handicraft shopping.

Source for information: Rosie Holidays, Fiji Airways, Tourism Fiji

About Rosie Holidays

The Rosie Travel Group is a leading Travel Company based in Nadi. It operates many award-winning brands, including Rosie Holidays, Thrifty Car Rentals (Fiji) and Ahura Resorts, operators of Malolo Island Resort and Likuliku Lagoon Resort. 

The company operates a diverse portfolio of tourism investments, including transportation, inbound tourism, retail travel, overseas wholesaling and hotel resort ownership and development.

The company is 100 per cent Fijian owned and the group provides employment to over 600 people.

For more information contact Adeline Lee-Erasito, the director Business Development on adeline@rosie.com.fj

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