SOUTH Sea Cruises welcomed their first group of Chinese nationals from Shanghai who took advantage of the hot sunny weather to spend a day at the popular South Sea Island in the Mamanuca Group.

The group from a tech company Flux have been in the country for the past few days enjoying the Fijian hospitality.

South Sea Cruises China business development manager Kerry Lee said this was the first of many groups that would be visiting the country and the island in 2019.

“We started welcoming large groups from China in 2016 where we had about 1300 people coming to Fiji,” he said.

“For 2019, this is our first group of about 230 where they will stay at the Marriott for a few nights then spend a day at South Sea Island and then they will move into Mana Island Resort.”

She explained the group consisted technology professionals from a high tech company in China.

“They are mostly managers and CEOs who look to travel to different countries and experience new cultures. We are very happy that they chose Fiji this year.”

Flux CEO Konen Shi said their experience so far had exceeded their expectations.

“Every year we have an annual meeting to see where we wanted to go for a holiday,” he said.

“And this year we picked Fiji because we liked what we see especially of the beaches and the cultural information that we were given. We think that Fiji is a very beautiful and exciting place which was one the main reasons we wanted to come. It is even more beautiful when you come and experience it for yourself.”