Chinese tour operators and travel agents are showing a strong interest in promoting Malta, Reno Calleja, president of the Malta China Friendship Society, has told The Times.
Mr Calleja has just returned from his 30th visit to China, where he was accompanied by the mayor of Marsascala, Mario Calleja. The delegation was attending the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Shanghai Friendship Association.
The introduction of regular direct flights by Emirates Airlines from Beijing to Dubai and on to Malta, and the easing of visa restrictions are listed as the main reasons by Mr Calleja for this new interest in Malta by Chinese tour operators.
Mr Calleja urged the Malta Tourism Authority to call local travel agents, hoteliers and others in the tourist trade to participate in the November Shanghai tourism fair, CITM. "Perhaps it is now too late to take a stand at this fair, but if this is still possible MTA should make it clear that the private tourism sector should share the expenses," Mr Calleja said. If two months ago the Malta China Friendship society, a voluntary organisation, was able to rope in the private sector to organise a gastronomic festival in Guangdong, there is no reason why the MTA would not be able to do the same, he added.
The celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the Shanghai Friendship Association were attended by 500 delegates from 34 countries. The Maltese delegation became the centre of attraction since two Shanghai newspapers, one in English and another in Chinese, published a story on an emotional meeting that Mr Calleja had with the family of Xu Hui Zhong, a Chinese worker who had died tragically in Malta in the 1970s while working on the Red China Dock project.
In 1979, then Prime Minister Dom Mintoff had instructed Mr Calleja to proceed to Shanghai to present the Medal of the Republic to the worker's widow. Mrs Xu has since died but she is survived by her daughter and son, who had an emotional reunion with Mr Calleja.
While in Shanghai Mr Calleja met various tour operators and travel agents who are keen to start promoting Malta as part of a European holiday package. The mayor of Marsascala met the vice-mayor of Shanghai and other government officials, and discussed co-operation between Shanghai and Marsascala. The delegation also attended the official opening of the International Children's Exhibition, where photographs submitted by Maltese children were prominently displayed.
The delegation then went to Beijing, where it was the guest of the president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, Chen Hua Su, a personal friend of Mr Calleja's.
The delegation also met the Maltese Ambassador to China, Karl Xuereb. Mr Calleja met the Chinese Olympic Committee, who will host the 2008 Olympics, and suggested that famous Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja should be invited to sing in the opening ceremony. The next stop of the delegation, Xwanwu, a district of Beijing, saw Mr Calleja and the mayor of Marsascala being hosted to a dinner by the mayor, Mr Wang.
The delegation than flew to Jilin, a city reputed to have some of the best universities in China. Mr Calleja met various tour operators and student bodies and urged them to send more Chinese students to study English in Malta. The mayor of Jilin, Mr Cui, also had discussions with the delegation. The event was covered by Jilin television, which took the opportunity to air a programme on Malta as a tourist destination.
In Changchun the delegation was hosted to dinner by the vice-mayor, Mrs An Li. The delegation visited the World Sculpture Park, which is almost Malta's size, where more than 450 sculptures from all over the world are exhibited, including one by Maltese sculptor John Ebejer.