Friday, December 6, 2019
The tourists from China will be able to fly directly to Nova Scotia starting next fall. Premier Stephen McNeil said that this direct charter flight from Guangzhou to Halifax will arrive in next September and another in early October next year.
The passengers will fly from Guangdong province’s capital with China Southern Airlines. McNeil credited the partnerships with Governor Ma Xingrui, China Southern Airlines and GZL International Travel Service for being critical to the venture.
McNeil told reporters at a news conference in Halifax, they have been working on this now and its now probably our third or fourth year when we started the conversation. A lot of details had to be worked out. The governor’s very supportive of the project. There were a number of hurdles we had to overcome and it seemed to come together at this time.
There are about 5,000 Chinese tourists visited Nova Scotia in 2018. The province’s target is to attract 50,000 Chinese visitors a year by 2024. On average, a visitor from China spends $2,850 in Canada.
The China Southern Airlines planes will carry 271 passengers. They will have the option of buying travel packages through GZL, which is 60 per cent owned by the Chinese government. The packages are still being worked out but GZL representatives toured Nova Scotia, P.E.I. and New Brunswick in September to come up with possibilities.
On the return leg of each flight, Nova Scotia lobster will be shipped back to China. The long-term goal would be two flights every two weeks from May until October, the premier said.
This expanding business relationship of Nova Scotia with the country presents a stark contrast to the frosty diplomatic relationship at the moment between Ottawa and China. The arrest of a Chinese businesswoman Meng Wanzhou 10 months ago in Vancouver and the subsequent arrests of Canadians in China have sparked a travel advisory from the federal government.
China also has come under fire for the mass detentions of its Muslim Uighur population. McNeil reiterated past comments that Nova Scotia can’t impose its values on another country.
Tuesday, January 2, 2024
