MELAKA: Airline and tour operators must take advantage of the government's charter flight matching grant incentive to encourage tourist arrivals.
Malaysian Tourism Promotion Board (Tourism Malaysia) director-general Datuk Dr Ammar Abd Ghapar said this would also address the low number of direct overseas flights, especially from China.
"The incentive was mooted as there were only 1.4 million tourist arrivals from China last year, a far cry from our initial target of five million.The charter flight matching grant is crucial to increase the frequency of flights to Malaysia," he said.
Ammar said this after attending the Malaysia Book of Records Awards Ceremony for the largest lighting event at a water theme park and first lighting event in a water theme park at the Melaka Wonderland Theme Park and Resort in Ayer Keroh here on Friday (Feb 2) night.
The event was launched by Melaka Chief Minister Datuk Seri Ab Rauf Yusoh with the presence of state officials as well as Melaka Wonderland chief operating officer Seow Cheng Swee.
Ammar also said tourism operators in "visit-the-state year" states need to introduce more diverse and intriguing tourism products to attract more holidaymakers and encourage repeat visits.
He said this has been organised by four states, namely Perak, Kelantan, Perlis and Melaka and would create momentum ahead of Visit Malaysia Year 2026.
"Tourism stakeholders should always come up with new products and promotions because each state has its own target market," he said.
