Britain's first charter holidays to China unveiled.

LONDON, March 22 Kyodo

Airtours Ltd. became Wednesday the first British company to offer charter vacations to China.

Customers will be able take package holidays to Sanya, on Hainan Island, off China's southwestern coast.

Charter holidays are already very popular with British tourists who tend to take package deals to Mediterranean resorts and Florida.

The half-board, two-week holidays to the tropical resort will cost 1,239 pounds ($2,167) each and include a two-night stay in Beijing.

Steve Barrass, managing director for Airtours, said in a statement, ''Today we've scaled the last great wall of travel by becoming the first ever tour operator to offer package-style holidays to China.''

The holidays will go on sale at the end of March with the first flights departing from London's Gatwick Airport and Manchester Airport in May 2007.

Since the 1970s, Britons have regularly taken package holidays to Europe. Many enjoy the simplicity of paying for their flight and accommodation in one transaction.

The travel company charters an aircraft to the resort and has staff at the hotel to look after customers and organize tours.

Barrass said people were more adventurous and charter holidays had to reflect this.

''We've refined and extended the successful full service holiday formula over the last few years in destinations such as Goa, Cuba, Brazil and now China. The package holiday is evolving. Charter holidays to China clearly show just how much,'' he said.

In its publicity, Airtours confidently predicts China will become one of Britain's most popular long-haul tourist destinations, alongside the Caribbean and Florida.

Xiang Shi, director of the China National Tourist Office in Britain, said, ''It's an exciting new addition to our flourishing tourism industry. Sanya on Hainan Island has long been one of China's premier beach resorts for both our domestic and international tourism markets.''

Travel to East Asia from Britain tends to be either one of two kinds: independent travel, generally favored by young people, or organized sightseeing tours, which tend to be expensive and popular with retirees. The organized trips also use scheduled flights as opposed to chartering airlines.