Sarawak to get more tourists inorder to get more Flights

Sarawak's tourism industry must work hard to increase the number of visitors to the state if it wants its requests for more flights to be granted by the airlines, state Housing Minister Datuk Abang Johari Tun Abang Openg said.

He said this was necessary so that additional flights would be viable for airlines.

"The question of air connectivity is related to the volume of people coming in.

"If the flights are not full, no one will provide extra trips.

"But if the volume is there, I'm sure we can request Malaysia Airlines (MAS) to mount extra flights to meet the demands of passengers who are coming here," he told reporters after launching a travel booking website for local company Insight Holidays here on Wednesday.

Tourism players in Sarawak have often lamented the relative lack of flights serving the state, making it a less accessible destination compared to other parts of Malaysia.

Abang Johari called on industry players to work together with MAS and be more aggressive and innovative in their marketing to attract more tourists.

"To be fair to MAS, they are currently engrossed in turning around their business and their consideration is whether the routes we request can make money for them.

"On the other hand we need the services of MAS to cater to our tourism industry. I think we have to be very aggressive in providing the passenger load so that MAS is able to mount the flights we need," he said.

Source : STAR
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