Gulf Air launches Special Fares to Malaysia

Gulf Air and Tourism Malaysia signed an agreement on Wednesday to jointly promote Malaysia’s 50 years of nationhood. The agreement, signed by Gulf Air and Tourism Malaysia, comes after last year’s Memorandum of Understanding between the two sides to set up a task force to seek ways to jointly promote “Visit Malaysia”.

"Malaysia is an extremely popular destination for tourists from the Middle East and over the years the country has been witnessing a steady increase in the number of tourists’ arrivals from the region,” said Gulf Air General Manager Bahrain Abdulmalik Al Saei.

Malaysia received as many as 12,404,377 tourists between Jan and July 2007, a 24% jump over the same period last year.

Around 130, 000 tourists from the Middle East and Iran visited Malaysia in the first half this year, up nearly 42% when compared with the same period last year.

Visitors from Bahrain alone jumped 24.4% higher to 3,246 in the first seven months this year up from 2,610 during the same period in 2006.

Gulf Air’s Head of Marketing Peter Rothel said the airline is eager to tap into the influx. "Gulf Air has been flying to Kuala Lumpur for years and with the strongest network in the Middle East, the airline is best positioned to cooperate with Tourism Malaysia.”

Gulf Air, which operates daily flights to Malaysia, has slashed prices to 149 BHD for a roundtrip (Bahrain-Kuala Lumpur-Bahrain) starting October and until the end of the year.

“The campaign is timely as it gives visitors the opportunity to attend world-class events and festivals taking place in Malaysia over the next three months,” added Mr. Rothel.

Events coming up during the next three months are the Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix (19 October-21 October) featuring many of the world’s greatest riders, Malaysian International Gourmet Festival (2 November- 29 November) which is one of the country’s premier gastronomic events and the Malaysia Year End Sale Carnival (1 December 2007 to 1 January 2008) offering special bargains for shoppers.

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