Etihad Airways and Tourism Malaysia have signed a global partnership agreement to boost tourism to the country.
Under the agreement the two organisations will put into effect a range of joint marketing activities targeting Malaysia’s leading inbound visitor markets – the UK, US, Europe and the Middle East.
Research by Tourism Malaysia revealed in 2014 there were more than 1.2 million visits from these key markets, a 10% increase on 2013.
Andrew Ward, vice president for marketing at Etihad Airways, which is currently at Expo Milano 2015 with Tourism Malaysia, said: “This partnership underlines the long-standing links between Etihad Airways and Malaysia, and will help to create even greater opportunities to increase the growing number of tourists and business travellers flying to the country with us.
“Malaysia is one of our top destinations, and Etihad Airways has carried more than one million passengers to and from the country since 2007.”
The campaign will focus on multimedia marketing and familiarisation trips for the travel trade, while Etihad will have an enhanced presence on Tourism Malaysia’s traditional and digital platforms.
Chong Yoke Har, deputy director general for planning of Tourism Malaysia, said that Etihad Airways had demonstrated a strong and growing commitment to the Malaysian market.
“This agreement is an important step towards Malaysia achieving its strategic goal of earning RM168 billion from the targeted 36 million tourist arrivals by 2020,” she said.