Outbound demand for holidays to China are strong for this coming autumn and winter seasons, share outbound agents from Malaysia.
For the lack of direct flights to Harbin, Apple Vacations’ group managing director, Koh Yock Heng, shared that the company’s solution is to organise charter flights during the 2024 Chinese New Year period, with the Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival as a draw.
The tour packages were sold at the recent consumer MITM Travel Fair held at Mid Valley Exhibition Centre in Kuala Lumpur. According to Koh, 30 per cent of the 287-seat charter flight capacity by Malaysia Airlines was sold during the three-day fair.
He added that packaged tours for autumn departures to Tibet and Inner Mongolia also sold well during the fair – these tour packages depend on first-tier cities, Beijing and Shanghai, as gateway cities.
Koh also welcomed the recent announcement by Malaysia-headquartered AirAsia regarding improvements in air connectivity to China.
AirAsia will soon resume flights from Kota Kinabalu to Hangzhou starting with three flights weekly from September 2, while sister airline AirAsia X will be increasing services from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing from four to five flights weekly from September 1, and from Kuala Lumpur to Shanghai from four to seven-times weekly commencing September 15.
AirAsia X will also increase frequencies from Kuala Lumpur to Hangzhou from three to four flights weekly from September 30.
Patrick Law, managing director, Confidence Travel & Tour, shared that the improvements in air connectivity between China and Malaysia bodes well for both countries.
Law was happy with the take-up rate of his company’s sale packaged tours with fixed departures to Guilin and Yangshuo at the recent MITM Travel Fair. After a three-year lockdown, China is now high on the radar for many Malaysians looking for an affordable medium-haul destination to explore.
Adam Kamal, director of Suka Holiday which specialises in tours for the Muslim outbound market, hoped that the improvements in air connectivity between Malaysia and China will also result in reasonable airfares on AirAsia and AirAsia X.
Observing that four-night tours to Beijing and Shanghai were most popular among the Muslim family segment, Kamal shared that the confidence level among Muslim travellers to China has returned, and the company will be starting group departures to China from August.
