Expect to be seeing a lot more shamrocks and leprechauns around Nanjing in the coming months, as a group of 40 professionals from the Chinese travel industry recently gathered at a forum in the city intended on promoting tourism to Ireland.
Organised by Tourism Ireland in conjunction with Finnair, that recently launched direct flights between Nanjing and Helsinki, the event was attended by travel agents who are specialised in selling holidays to European destinations, using Finnair as their carrier of choice.
While much of the rest of the world has cut back considerably on their use of travel agents, preferring instead to arrange holidays and trip themselves, in China they are still much in demand, particularly for international holidays in locations that are very foreign to the Chinese. In addition to assisting with gaps in the knowledge of the destination country, travel agents in China also help with the obvious language barriers and complicated visa processes.
That said, Tourism Ireland were keen to point out the British Irish Visa Scheme, which enables Chinese travellers to visit both the UK and the Republic of Ireland on the same visa, whether that be a UK visa or a Schengen Visa, although that may change in March next year under BREXIT.
The training seminar in Nanjing was the second such event aimed at the China travel industry, following a first run in Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi Province, earlier this year, reports HospitalityeNews.
Speaking of the event, James Kenny, Tourism Ireland’s Manager China, said, “We were delighted to partner with Finnair once again, to inform and enthuse key travel agents in the city of Nanjing about the island of Ireland. China is the largest outbound travel market in the world and one that Tourism Ireland is committed to growing over the coming years. In 2017, we welcomed an estimated 90,000 Chinese visitors to the island of Ireland”.
So while foreigners flock to Zhangjiajie to see the set for Avatar, Nanjingers will soon be destined for the emerald isle and the filming locations for Star Wars and Game of Thrones. Now there’s probably a leprechaun behind that.
