Chinese airlines in it for the long haul

Carriers attract bigger share of China's travel boom at home and abroad

China Southern Airline's Boeing Dreamliner arrives at London's Heathrow Airport from Guangzhou on Sept 10 on its maiden flight. Last year, China's big three air carriers — Air China, China Southern and China Eastern — saw a 20 percent growth in the number of international passengers. Xie Songxin / China Daily

With the nation's outbound travel set to soar, Chinese airlines are banking on brand recognition to capitalize on the population's increasing appetite to work and travel abroad. As incomes enjoy steady growth, so too do foreign destinations hosting Chinese tourists.

China had the highest number of outbound tourists and amount of overseas spending in the world last year, according to a recent report released by the Tourist Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Ninety-seven million Chinese traveled abroad in 2013, beating the 2012 mark by roughly 14 million, according to the China National Tourism Administration. The number is expected to exceed 100 million this year.

The report said that China's tourists have had the world's strongest purchasing power since 2012. They overtook German and US tourists as the world's biggest-spending travelers in 2012, spending $102 billion overseas, a 40-percent increase from 2011.

Last year, international traffic for China's three big carriers — Air China, China Eastern and China Southern — saw the number of international passengers increase by an average of 20 percent.

To meet demand, Hainan Airlines announced it will start a new nonstop service from Beijing to Boston, Massachusetts, in June.

"Business, leisure and educational travel and trade between the United States and China have been growing dramatically," Liang Pubin, managing director of Hainan Airlines in North America, said at the time of the announcement. "This wonderful new link will stimulate this growth via the important Boston gateway."

The new flight offers access for US visitors to more than 32 Chinese cities via Hainan Airlines' hub in Beijing.

For Boston, it means adding to the 21 million annual tourists to the city — with Chinese the fastest-growing demographic in visitors — as well as bringing business travelers to stimulate the local economy.

Last year, 1.7 million Chinese traveled to the US, an increase of 40 percent on 2012, according to figures from the US Department of State.

The surge in growth of Chinese going to the US is attributed to the US easing its visa policy in 2012 to entice more foreign tourists.

"Boston is the sixth-largest airline passenger market in the US to China and the largest without a nonstop service," says Richard Davey, secretary and chief executive of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

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