REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, MANADO -- Lion Air has opened new route for chartered flight between the International Airport of Sam Ratulangi of Manado, North Sulawesi and the International Airport of Binhai of Tianjin, Dongli, China. The new route is expected to help increase the number of Chinese tourists to North Sulawesi, General Manager of the Sam Ratulangi airport Minggus E T Gandeguai said here on Tuesday.

Lion Air already serves four routes of chartered flights linking Manado with Changsha Huanghua, Shenzhen Bao'an, Guangzhou Baiyun, and Shanghai Pudong.

The new route is served with flight schedules of four times in July 2018. The first flight on July 23 was served with a Boeing 737-MAX 8 aircraft having a seat capacity of 180 passengers.

Direct flights are already served by Sriwijaya Air and Citilink between Manado and other cities in China . North Sulawesi is hoping to woo more Chinese tourists to visit its cities.

The direct flight services have increased the number of Chinese tourists to Indonesia especially to North Sulawesi which takes pride in its variety of natural beauty notably the famous biodiversity-rich Bunaken Marine National Park. The park has been inscribed in the list of World Natural Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Bunaken has diverse marine life with 70 different corals, five species of sea turtles, many fish species, and even white tip and black tip reef sharks, the almost extinct dugongs, and barracuda.

Indonesia hopes to attract 12 million foreign tourists this year, and 20 million by 2019, mainly from Malaysia, Singapore, China, Australia and Japan.

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