BIRMINGHAM Airport and Marketing Birmingham have won special recognition for their efforts to encourage Chinese tourism to Birmingham.
The move follows the announcement that direct charter flights between Birmingham and Beijing will begin this summer following the opening of Birmingham's extended runway.
The two organisations have been boosted in their efforts by becoming two of the first 100 companies across the UK to be awarded a new chartermark declaring they are fit to welcome Chinese visitors.
The GREAT China Welcome Charter is a new initiative from VisitBritain designed to make Britain the destination of choice for the rapidly-growing Chinese market. Visitors from China have doubled in the last five years and tourism bosses estimate they will treble again by 2020.
The new charter will help Chinese visitors easily identify hotels, attractions, retailers and tour operators that are making themselves 'China-ready' by providing information in Chinese and adapting their products for the market.
Birmingham Airport qualified as one of the first charter members because of the investment it has made to encourage Chinese visitors. New measures include Chinese terminal signage, staff cultural awareness training, Mandarin speaking front of house staff, specific web-pages translated into Mandarin, and a dedicated VAT refund facility for passengers to use before jetting back home.
Jo Lloyd, the airport's marketing director, said: "We are experiencing strong interest from China and are looking forward to launching direct charter flights between Birmingham and Beijing in July, welcoming hundreds of Chinese tourists to the Midlands region, which is home to world famous attractions such as Shakespeare's Birthplace, the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and Warwick Castle.
"Being a Charter member will enable us, and our partners, to be recognised for the work that we are doing to welcome Chinese visitors and we are proud to be a founding member."
Marketing Birmingham, which operates the city's leisure tourism programme Visit Birmingham, secured its charter status after delegates attended recent VisitBritain trade missions to China and other countries in the Far East, meeting with travel agents and developing a product to bring more Chinese visitors to the city.
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