The Minister of South African Tourism, Mr. Marthinus van Schalkwyk, on an official visit to China, was part of the initiative that sees South African Airways (SAA) proudly launching its first ever non-stop flight to China this week. The inaugural flight landed in Bejing on 31 January 2012.

"The Chinese economy continues to grow despite difficult global economic conditions, bringing with it an increasing outbound travel market. This underscores the fact that airlift certainly forms a critical link between trading nations and tourism markets. It also comes at a time when China is emerging as a strong trade partner and an important tourism market for South Africa,” said the minister.

The introduction of non-stop flights between the two destinations promises to facilitate both business and leisure travel between the two countries as well as to all the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and other countries on our continent.

We have without a doubt witnessed an increase in trade relations between China and South Africa, with considerable Chinese investment in South Africa, and an increase in interest, awareness and understanding between our two countries. This period has also, to the significance of all of us in the tourism industry, coincided with a strong increase in tourists from China visiting South Africa.

In 2009, we saw 42 083 Chinese tourists visiting South Africa, and, in 2010, that number increased by 62,3%, to 68 309. The statistics to date for Chinese visitors to South Africa from January to September 2011 show that just under 60 000 visitors (59187) had travelled to our shores – 18,1% more than over the same period in 2010.

China has been identified as a viable source market for international tourist arrivals to South Africa. The majority of travellers (66%) are between the ages of 25-44. This market experienced a phenomenal 42% growth in 2010. Business travel is also showing great improvement, growing by 18,4% between 2007-2010. In 2010, the average length of stay grew to 14,9 nights. The China travel market is therefore showing characteristics of a maturing travel market.

In China, over the last five years, 45 new airports have been built with another 52 in the pipeline for the next decade. It is therefore important to unlock this emerging market. China's outbound tourism is expected to double by 2012. It is estimated that the 800 million new travellers expected worldwide in 2014, 360 million (45%) will travel on Asia Pacific routes, and, of those, 310 million will be associated with China.