DAVAO CITY—The last group of Chinese tourists visiting this city and other places in Mindanao were all flown to Manila to catch their next flight back home to mainland China, the China Consulate General here said.
Consul General Li Lin also assured that the departing tourists were all screened when they arrived here last week.
Li said the tourists from the mainland were those flown by Xiamen Air, which has opened a two times a week flight connecting this city with Jinjiang, a county-level city of Quanzhou City in northeastern China province Fujian.
Li said the Chinese tourists were flown to Manila on Sunday to help them catch up with the celebration of the Spring Festival for the Chinese New Year on January 25.
The Chinese consulate official said he has checked with travel and tour agencies which, in turn, reported that there were no more Chinese tourists from the mainland who remained.
The Xiamen Air put up the Jinjiang flight in December after the two cities signed a sisterhood pact.
Li said the airline has suspended its Davao-Jinjiang flight throughout February.
The tourists
stayed for three days to one week. Li said the consulate advised the tourists
to cut their trips as the flights from Jinjiang to Davao City, for the whole
month of February were canceled. “If they want to stay…they might not be able
to go back to China,” Li
said.
Americans topped the list of visitors here, with 22,041 visitors, followed by China, with 14,934, and Japanese 13,241 in 2019.