Asiana expanding presence in China

Asiana Airlines CEO Yoon Young-doo, right, applauds with students as one of them plays the guzheng, a traditional Chinese stringed instrument, with the help of an Asiana employee at the Yongfeng Junior Middle School in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China, Wednesday. The school is the sixth that Asiana Airlines has established sister relations with. The airline provided the school with 36 computers, 1,000 books, a piano and 15 guzheng. / Courtesy of Asiana Airlines

Asiana Airlines has been accelerating its expansion into the Chinese market ever since it launched flights to the neighboring country 18 years ago.

It provides the most flights to China from Korea with 30 flight routes to 21 cities there. Through active investment in China, Asiana built material and relational bridges between the two nations.

It recently developed customized package tours for Chinese tourists. One launched last year takes Chinese visitors around the major information technology sites in Korea. It includes a tour around information technology exhibition centers at Samseong Station, the Digital Media City and Yongsan Electronics Shopping Center as well as major tourist destinations in Korea such as Gyeongbok Palace and Mt. Nam in Seoul and the demilitarized zone (DMZ) in Gyeonggi Province, not to mention Jeju Island.

Asiana expects about 40,000 tourists to visit Korea through the information technology package this year. As of the end of last year, about 16,000 Chinese tourists visited the country on it. The tour has been available since June 27, 2011.

There is also a beauty tour package for those wanting to receive beauty treatment in Korea or get cosmetic surgery.

The airline is doing its utmost to attract more Chinese tourists to the country.

It launched a flight specifically targeting Chinese passengers going to Jeju Island in October 2010. The Jeju Express runs from Incheon to the resort island for Chinese tourists only. During 2011, about 16.5 million Chinese used the service.

It started package flights from March ahead of the Yeosu Expo which ran from May through August this year. During the summer of 2011, it invited Chinese students and parents to the country to provide them with an opportunity to experience Korean culture for three days.

The company also actively carries out social welfare projects in China to help students in underdeveloped regions receive education in a better environment.

Starting this year, the airline began a three-year project to provide educational equipment to schools in China.

The new project aims to establish sister relations for the next three years with 20 schools in 20 regions in China that have local Asiana branches. Asiana has established sister relations with six schools since March this year. They are Tumen No. 5 Middle School and Jiutai Korean Ethnic Minority School in Jilin Province, Weihai Banyuewan Primary School and Shandong Yantai Muping Dayao Junior Middle School in Shandong Province, Wafangdian Laohutun Town Central Primary School in Liaoning Province, and Yongfeng Junior Middle School in Jiangsu Province. The Yongfeng Junior Middle School was added Thursday as the sixth school.

The airline has so far provided computers, books, pianos, projectors and photocopiers to help students learn in a better environment.

Other social welfare projects Asiana carries out in China include providing playgrounds and educational equipment to facilities for disabled children and planting trees in the eco-city of Tianjin.

Asiana has received travel awards from China every year since 2010 for providing the best service and for being selected as the airline company Chinese most prefer. <The Korea Times/Yun Suh-young>

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