Birmingham Airport has announced a new partnership with a Chinese travel specialist, in a bid to attract more Chinese visitors to the region. The partnership with Caissa forms part of the wider ‘China Welcome Campaign’ being launched by VisitBritain, the national tourism body, which aims to make the UK the most welcoming destination in the world for Chinese visitors.

The founding partners of the campaign include some of the UK’s leading tourism and consumer brands such as Hilton, easyJet, Harrods and John Lewis. Birmingham, Manchester and London are the only destinations to have signed up to become founding partners of the new agreement.

The agreement was announced as part of trade and investment deals totaling over £5.6 billion and creating over 1,500 UK jobs which were signed between UK and Chinese firms during the largest ever trade mission led by a Prime Minister to China. More than 120 British companies, including around 60 small and medium-sized UK firms, made the trip to China this week, which aims to take the economic relationship between the two countries to a new level.

"Linking Britain to fast-growing markets like China is a vital part of the government’s plan to provide sustainable growth and compete in the global race,” said UK Prime Minister, Rt Hon David Cameron. "These announcements show the huge potential to increase business with China.

Looking at the Birmingham Airport arrangement in greater detail, through this partnership, Caissa will be working together with the Airport in promoting Birmingham as a gateway to the United Kingdom for Chinese tourism. The agreement will see the Airport and Caissa work together to deliver a tourism programme inbound to the UK from China in 2014.

The partnership will build awareness of Britain as a tourism destination for Chinese visitors, working with VisitBritain and others to develop existing and new UK tourism packages that stimulate demand from the Chinese market and increase holiday sales from China to the UK through the Caissa official website and Birmingham Airport.

This could include joint marketing and PR campaigns with national and regional tourism partners and improved customer service for Chinese visitors into and departing from Birmingham Airport with an emphasis on VAT refund facilities, Chinese signage and staff with specialist language skills.

Paul Kehoe, chief executive officer, Birmingham Airport, said that through the partnership the companies will be working together in establishing Birmingham Airport as a gateway to the UK for Chinese tourism. “We are also proud to be part of the partnership which will strengthen ties between the UK and China,” he added.

Like many UK airports, Birmingham’s senior management and aviation marketing team are pushing to secure new non-stop links into China. Currently direct air services into China are restricted to the London market with flights from Heathrow to Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Shanghai and from Gatwick to Beijing. But, at a regional level the Chinese visitor market is worth over £1 million to the West Midlands economy with Birmingham now the 4th most popular destination for Chinese visitors in England.

“While direct flights from Birmingham to China may be the ultimate goal, there is much to be done to get there. Persuading major airlines that there is a business case is the start and these agreements will help us prove our commitment to making such routes work,” explained Sir Albert Bore, Leader of Birmingham City Council.

China is currently one of the fastest growing visitor source markets for the UK tourism industry at a rate of 20 per cent year-on-year over the past few years. The size of the market has tripled over the past decade, and it is forecast to continue to grow strongly for the remainder of the decade.

In the table below we look in greater detail at Origin and Destination passenger flows between UK and China and highlight the largest home and end markets for passengers travelling between the two countries. The analysis clearly shows the strength of passenger flows from regional points across the UK to the major cities in China.

Elsewhere in the aviation sector, UK low-fare carrier easyJet announced the launch of a dedicated Chinese homepage during the UK trade mission to China in response to the growing number of Chinese customers flying with the airline. Having already launched US, Russian and Brazilian homepages, the Chinese site will be the 22nd homepage to be added to its online offering and the third BRIC country homepage.

“This year easyJet has seen a 25 per cent increase in bookings from China versus 2012,” said Carolyn McCall, chief executive officer, easyJet. “Along with the other BRIC economies, the demand from Chinese customers is predicted to continue to grow over the coming years which means that, with a dedicated homepage, easyJet is ideally positioned to capture more of the market of the millions of Chinese who are travelling to and within Europe every year.”

According to the carrier current bookings show that Paris is the most popular European destination for China-based bookings closely followed by Milan, Rome, Nice, Barcelona, London, Edinburgh and Belfast.