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Beijing OKs 'Approved Destination Status' For French Polynesia

Wednesday: August 13, 2008

(Oceania Flash)

China's National Tourism Administration (CNTA) has earlier this week given its final nod to the implementation of the earlier granted "approved destination status" (ADS) label, effective September 15, CNTA officials said on Monday.

After years of protracted negotiations, Papeete-based Chinese Consul General, Zhang Dongyue, who took office in October 2007, announced in March this year that French Polynesia had been granted the much sought-after approved destination status (ADS).

This week's approval in effect means French Polynesia (as well as Israel) has now joined the list of some 95 approved destinations worldwide for Chinese tourists.

It also means, on the implementation level, that travel groups will be allowed out of China into the French Pacific territory provided they hold a passport valid for more than six months.

Beijing appointed Zhang as its first Consul General in French Polynesia last year. Since Zhang's first announcement in March 2008 that the Approved Tourist Destination status had come into force, the official authorization for approved Chinese tour operators to send tourists to French Polynesia remained to be made.

Earlier significant steps included the Chinese government announcing, in February 2007, that the label had been granted to French Polynesia, on principle.

French Polynesia's successive government had initiated steps to obtain the status from China over five years ago.

The ADS's implementation had since involved the drafting at the highest level between China and the French Pacific territory of a Memorandum of Understanding. The MOU particularly focused on practical details (including visa issuance conditions) needed to kick-start a regular flow off Chinese tourists into French Polynesia, a destination referred to as "Tahiti and Her Islands.”

Another complicating factor was that formalization also had to be dealt with on a State to State level that is either from Paris, between the metropolitan French government and its tourism ministry and the Chinese Embassy in Paris, or from Beijing, between the Chinese government and the French Embassy in China.

Other matters high on the agenda in terms of links between French Polynesia and China include trade facilitation and possibly tax exemption for French Polynesia's black pearls exports to China.

Upon arriving in French Polynesia to take up his position last year, Consul General Zhang said the three pillars of his future action in French Polynesia would be "friendship, understanding and cooperation.”

For the past few years, French Polynesia and the People Republic of China have consistently strengthened ties, especially on the trade side.

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