KCRC provides intercity through train services between Hong Kong and Mainland China…
KCRC provides intercity through train services between Hong Kong and Mainland China while the most popular Guangzhou-Kowloon Through Train (GZTT) will again serve as the Official Rail of ITE this year and sponsor through train tickets for hosted buyers from China to attend ITE, particularly those from Southern China. In addition, GZTT will also support promotions to recruit more Chinese travelers to visit ITE during the public days.
At present, KCRC has three through train routes linking Hong Kong and the Mainland, namely, the Beijing line, the Shanghai line and the Guangdong line. Currently, the Guangdong line operates 12 pairs of trains on a daily basis going to different cities including Guangzhou, Dongguan, Foshan and Zhaoqing. The other two lines operate on alternate days. The trip time to Guangzhou takes about 1 hour and 40 minutes, while that of Beijing and Shanghai will take 24 and 26 hours respectively.
A special leaflet incorporated with free admission ticket during ITE`s public days will be jointly developed by KCRC and TKS, organizer of ITE. KCRC will assist to distribute this leaflet to its passengers from the Mainland. The two parties will also consider the possibility of organizing FAM trips for trade and media to visit ITE via KCRC`s two other routes of Beijing and Shanghai.
We believe that a bigger and a more internationalized ITE is of interests to Mainland Chinese travelers. KCRC has always been in the forefront to promote more traffic and provide quality intercity passenger services between Hong Kong and the Mainland via through trains, and Mainland Chinese travelers now come to Hong Kong for various purposes, including shopping of products and services and gathering of travel information at ITE, said Jonathan Leung, Manager-Intercity Marketing of KCRC. With the further extension of Mainland`s FIT policy to Tianjin and Chongqing municipality from 1 March 2005, it is expected that Mainland passengers traveling on through trains may soar.
The active involvement and greater support from KCRC has been welcomed by the organizer TKS. A high proportion of KCRC`s intercity through train passengers, particularly those with GZTT, travel on business purposes. They will more likely be high income groups with a higher propensity to travel abroad. We welcome them to visit our travel expo to find out what Hong Kong and the rest of the World can offer, be them travels for business and/or leisure?, said KS Tong, Managing Director of TKS.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
