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Batam’s Tourist Gateway program takes flight
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Warm welcome: Chinese tourists take a picture with traditional dancers welcoming their arrival at Hang Nadim International Airport in Batam, Riau Islands, on Thursday. (JP/Fadli)
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Lion Air Boeing 737-900 ER airplane carrying 212 passengers from Changsha, China, landed smoothly at Hang Nadim International Airport, Batam, Riau Islands, at 4:30 a.m. local time on Thursday.
The passengers, most of whom were middle aged and married couples, looked happy as they were greeted with a traditional Malay dance usually performed to welcome guests.
The arrival of the hundreds of passengers marked the trial of Batam’s Tourist Gateway program, in which it acts as a gateway for Chinese tourists before they continue their holiday travel to Malaysia and Singapore.
Riau Islands Association of Indonesian Tour and Travel Agencies (ASITA) chairman Andika Lim said the visit by the Chinese tourists was a result of cooperation between a travel agency in Indonesia and a travel company in China and Indonesia’s largest low-cost carrier Lion Air.
“Most of the passengers are residents of Tunan city. They came to tour Singapore and Malaysia. Batam is acting as the gateway for the Chinese tourists on their way to the two countries,” said Andika, who attended the welcoming ceremony held for the tourists.
He further said the Lion Air flight from Changsha to Batam on Thursday was a chartered flight and the inaugural flight for the Tourist Gateway program. In total, eight flights will arrive in Batam until the end of August, carrying 1,696 passengers or about 200 people per flight.
“The eight flights are part of tour packages sold in China. The packages they bought are trips to Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia,” said Andika.
