Joint promotion in Europe soon with S'pore Airlines
Published on: Friday, February 12, 2016
MALAYSIA is to sign an accord with Singapore Airlines (SIA) to jointly promote Malaysian vacation spots, including Sabah, in Europe, in light of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) cutting flights to the continent. Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz on Thursday said a "big announcement" would be made over the pact at the ITB Berlin Conference next month, saying it is the national carrier's loss that he picked SIA to bring in visitors into the country. ITB-Berlin Conference, the world's largest tourism convention, in Germany is scheduled for March 9 to 13.
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"We all know SIA flies everywhere in the world, so probably it is taboo to work with an airline owned by Singapore, but as Minister, my KPI (Key Performance Indicator) is based on the number of visitors coming to Malaysia. How they come here is not important to me," he told reporters after launching an engagement session with Sabah tourism players. "We cannot depend on MAS. I cannot work with them. To me what is important is to bring visitors to Malaysia and thus, we can go to any airlines and I want to work with SIA."I must have this attitude as you all know that tourism is considered the saviour of the country that is facing economic challenges at the moment," he added.
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Also present at the session were Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun and Sabah Tourism Board General Manager Datuk Irene Benggon Charuruks. Towards this end, he hoped Sabah will follow suit in the work to promote its vacation spots via the joint promotion effort with SIA.
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It was learnt the pact will see SIA make Singapore its jump-off point for visitors from countries like Spain, Portugal and Italy flying to six destinations in Malaysia, with the option to fly on its subsidiaries like Tiger Airways, Silk Air and Scoot. Nazri said this augurs well for Sabah, which is already "very popular" among the Europeans especially among Italian sailors who seem to be well-informed about Sandakan. He said this is the reason why he really wanted to work with SIA and in return the airline had accepted his proposal. On another, Mohamed Nazri said Malaysia has recorded a slight drop in arrivals with 2.85 million foreign visitors since Jan 2015. According to him, while the country recorded a 6.7 per cent drop, Sabah was still doing well, recording only a 1.8 per cent drop or around 51,000 visitors from 2014. "This is good. Although Sabah is faced with various challenges like the earthquake, people still fly over," he said. He noted Chinese topped the list of visitors to Sabah with 228,910, followed by Indonesia with 183,880, Korea 121,179, Brunei 71,946 and the Philippines 40,552, last year. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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