Malaysia's Tourism Minister To Sign MoU With Singapore Airlines At Berlin Show

FRANKFURT, March 5 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's tourism promotion agency, Tourism Malaysia, is joining hands with foreign airlines to promote Malaysia as a destination, notably to the German market.

Tourism Malaysia Frankfurt office director Mohamed Amin Yahya said Malaysia's Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz was expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with Singapore Airlines at the Berlin International Tourism Bourse to be held from March 9 to 13.

"We are having a promotion tie-up with Singapore Airlines for service from Germany to Kuala Lumpur and other airports in Malaysia with a stopover in Singapore," he told Bernama here.

The carrier operates two daily flights from Frankfurt and one from Munich to Singapore from where the carrier offers good connections to several cities in Malaysia.

At present SIA maintains a myriad of flights from Singapore to Sabah, Sarawak, Kuala Lumpur, Langkawi, all of which are favourite destinations of German tourists.

Malaysia Airlines, which operated a direct flight between Kuala Lumpur and Frankfurt, discontinued this service in spring 2015, leaving German carrier Lufthansa, which will discontinue its Frankfurt-Kuala Lumpur service end of this month, as the sole carrier to operate the sector.

But efforts are also afoot to use other airlines which have high frequencies to and from Frankfurt to their national hubs and then to Malaysia, he said.

Carriers having high frequencies include Emirates, Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines.

"Connectivity is a big challenge for us in sending tourists to Malaysia. The tourism sector has become the second biggest source of revenue now after the sharp fall in oil prices," said Mohamed Amin.

Another "ambitious campaign" will be the so-called "taxi campaign" in Berlin with some 100 German taxis to carry billboards highlighting the "Malaysia, Truly Asia" destination.

"For the current year, Tourism Malaysia in Frankfurt has been set a target of 160,000 German visitors," he added.
-bernama.