A miniature plane of China's Xiamen Airlines was revealed on Tuesday in Madurodam, one of the most famous Dutch tourist attractions located in The Hague.
"We receive about 650,000 visitors each year, 50 percent of them from abroad. Among them, 15,000 or 5 percent are Chinese guests and tourists. It is not a huge number, but it leaves enough room for growth in the near future," said Menno de Jong, financial director of the theme park, at the launch ceremony.
Madurodam exhibits many exact replicas of typical Dutch buildings and objects, on a scale of 1:25.
The Xiamen Airlines miniature plane touched down on the tarmac of the miniature version of Schiphol airport in Madurodam.
The park already has digital information screens that can display Chinese text. It has also translated tourist routes into Chinese and will launch a new page on its website in Chinese.
According to Jos Vranken, director of the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions (NBTC), Chinese tourists represent an important market for the Dutch tourism industry.
In 2015, a record of 5 million foreign visitors came to the Netherlands, 300,000 of them Chinese, he said.
"What is far more important is that China is by far the fastest growing inbound market for the Netherlands for a number of years in a row. And what is even more positive, is that there is a very strong outlook for the next few years," he added.
Since entering the Dutch market last July, Xiamen Airlines now flies six flights per week from Amsterdam to Xiamen directly through code share with KLM.
It has built up a good partnership with the Dutch airline company, according to Ying Yue, head of Xiamen Airlines' Amsterdam office.
Li Fei, Economic Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in the Netherlands, told the press that the new miniature plane reflects the ever closer cooperation between the two countries.
According to official statistics, the Netherlands is China's third largest trade investment partner in Europe, with an annual trade volume amounting to 70 billion U.S. dollars. There are more than 3,000 Dutch investment projects in China, and more than 500 Chinese companies in the Netherlands.
"Moreover, we have around 50 direct flights per week between the two countries. 300,000 tourists from China came to the country and nearly 10,000 Chinese students study in the Netherlands. The economic and trade cooperation between the Netherlands and China sets an example for that kind of cooperation between Europe and China," Li noted.
