Air links top agenda during tourism minister Leo Varadkar’s China visit

Tourism officials aim to boost Chinese visitor numbers to 50,000

A constant refrain in recent years about boosting tourism and trade links between Ireland and China has been the need for the introduction of a direct flight between the two countries.

Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Leo Varadkar said there was general acceptance that there would be a direct flight at some point, given growing trade and tourism links, but it needed a solid commercial basis.

China is becoming one of the most important travel markets in the world and outbound travel from China has grown at an exceptionally high rate in recent years, with the number of international trips growing significantly and forecasts for the next decade suggesting an even greater rise. A direct flight could help encourage more visitors to make the trip.

Currently, travelling between China and Ireland normally involves stopping over in Europe or the Middle East, then taking a connection.

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“There are plenty of flights, it’s not that hard to get to Ireland from here. But I think everyone accepts that sooner or later there will be direct flights between Ireland and China, most likely Dublin and Beijing,” said Varadkar in an interview at the Irish embassy in Beijing.

"It's really just a question of making it happen sooner rather than later, and the key thing is making it commercial, no airline will do it unless it's commercial so the message I was putting across to Air China and the CAAC (Civil Aviation Administration of China) and the Beijing Capital International Airport is that we can put in place the things to make it happen."

The route that seems to make the most commercial sense was the existing flight to London Gatwick and then tagging on a flight to Dublin.

“You could then grow that so you could fly direct without the stop,” said Varadkar.

If an airline such as China’s national carrier Air China were to come to Ireland, more marketing could be put in place to promote this, he said.

During his visit he addressed the opening of the Global Summit of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) in the city of Sanya on the holiday island of Hainan.

There are about 18,000 visitors from China and Ireland is targeting an increase of that number to 50,000 in the next couple of years.

“The visa waiver programme appears to be working and there’s been a big increase in the number of people coming through Britain, and what we’re working on now is mutual recognition of visas, where your UK visa is recognised in Ireland and your Irish visa is recognised in the UK, you just get the one visa,” said Varadkar.