SEPANG: Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Mohamaddin Ketapi personally welcomed passengers aboard the inaugural Air Arabia flight on its arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport from Sharjah yesterday.
Assistant Director of Corporate Communication Division for Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (Motac), Muadz Samat, said the direct flight to Kuala Lumpur was a result of the minister’s official visit to Dubai during the Arabian Travel Mart held in April this year.
At the event a joint tactical campaign agreement was signed between Tourism Malaysia, Malaysia Airports and Air Arabia to boost tourism between Malaysia and West Asian countries.
“Air Arabia, the Middle East and North Africa’s first and largest low-cost carrier, will help enhance tourism traffic from Sharjah, as well as from Iraq, Egypt and other Gulf Cooperation Council markets,” he said in a statement.
The direct flight, which started from July 1, operates with the brand new Airbus A321 Long Range aircraft. The seven-hour daily flight has a capacity of 215 passengers on each flight.
Tourism Malaysia seeks to attract more West Asian tourists to its shores to achieve its tourism target for 2019. Last year, Malaysia recorded RM3.1 billion in tourist receipts from West Asia, a growth of 32.9 percent compared to the previous year.
As of March 2019, tourist arrivals from West Asian countries to Malaysia registered a total of 65,202. – Bernama
