DIRECT flights between Taiwan and Hainan are set to increase four-fold this year, with China Airlines (CAL) launching earlier this month twice-weekly services between Taoyuan and Sanya.
CAL is also planning to start thrice-weekly flights to Haikou from October 30, while Taiwan’s EVA Air will start twice-weekly services to Haikou from October 31.
Previously, the only regular scheduled direct flights between Taiwan and Hainan were twice-weekly services operated by Hainan Airlines.
According to Jerry Lin, manager at the Taipei office of Lion Travel Service, the surge in the number of cross-straits connections stems from the signing of a treaty between Taiwan and China last June, which boosted the Taiwan-Hainan flight allocation from 370 to 558 flights per week.
The number of Taiwanese travelling to Hainan in the first half of 2011 has already exceeded the 70,000 visits tallied last year, according to Hainan government sources.
Lin, who manages Hainan packages at Lion Travel, said the demographic of Taiwanese travellers to Hainan was also changing.
“In the past, we handled group tours with travellers who were mostly in their sixties,” he said. “Now the average age is 32, and they are friends travelling together on tour packages.”
Lin said the presence of international hotel brands such as Hilton and Sheraton in Haikou and Sanya had made Hainan a more attractive destination for younger travellers.
Josephine Lee, assistant to the general manager, Richmond Tours, said interest in Hainan was piqued by Chinese director Feng Xiaogang’s 2009 romantic comedy, If you are the one, which was filmed in Hainan.
“A lot of people saw the movie, then visited Hainan, and when they returned they told their friends,” she said. “Interest has spread by word of mouth.”
Lee added: “People here think of Hainan as like Hawaii. It’s far away, and it has nice weather, but the people speak Mandarin.”
By Glenn Smith
