TUI group, a world leading tourism giant, has vowed to bring Scandinavian tour groups to Sanya, a seaside city in China's southernmost island province of Hainan.

Starting in October, TUI group will launch a scheduled flight to bring 180 Scandinavian guests to Sanya every week, said Marcel Schneider, chief executive officer of TUI China, in an interview with Xinhua.

"The flights will take off from Stockholm, Oslo or Helsinki and will arrive Sanya via Hong Kong," he said.

Schneider said Sanya has first-rate hotels, beautiful beach and limpid water. "It has all the ingredients for a beach destination for European holiday makers."

Scandinavians like to explore new holiday resorts, he said. "They've already been to Phuket, Bali and other Asian beach resorts, but many of them have never been to Sanya."

If his company proves successful in the tourism project, many other European nations are likely to follow suit, he said.

Schneider is leading a group of TUI China, a joint venture with China Travel Service, on a four-day trip to Sanya to inspect hotel facilities and promote TUI services to local tourism providers and hotels.

"TUI is expected to bring the first tour group from north Europe," said Wang Yuxiong, director of Sanya Tourism Development Administration.

Wang said the tropical city has drawn thousands upon thousands of travelers from east Asia, Russia and Kazakhstan.

TUI group is one of the world's largest tourism providers with last year's turnover totaling 19.6 billion euros (US$23.8 billion).

(Xinhua News Agency May 29, 2006)