Airlines, tourism players urged to use charter flight incentive

MELAKA: Airlines and tour operators should take advantage of the government’s charter flight matching grant incentive to attract tourists, says Datuk Dr Ammar Abd Ghapar.

The Malaysian Tourism Promotion Board (Tourism Malaysia) director-general said this would also address the issue of minimal direct overseas flights, especially involving China.

“The incentive was mooted following last year’s arrival of 1.4 million tourists from China, far from our target of five million.“The charter flight matching grant is crucial to increase the frequency of flights to Malaysia.

“The grant will also consider the needs of airline concessionaires which want to increase flight frequencies and establish new air routes,” he said after attending the Malaysia Book of Records awards ceremony for the “Largest Lighting Event in 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 night.

The event was launched by Melaka Chief Minister Datuk Seri Ab Rauf Yusoh in the presence of state officials as well as Melaka Wonderland CEO Seow Cheng Swee.

Separately, Ammar said tourism stakeholders who had launched Visit Year 2024 (VY24) in their states should produce more fascinating products to attract holidaymakers.

“We want these tourism players to be creative in diversifying their products because we want to see repeat tourists to their states,” he said.

VY24, he added, is currently being organised by four states – Perak, Kelantan, Perlis and Melaka.

Ammar said the performance of these states in hosting the event would be used as a yardstick of the programme’s success and to create momentum in the preparations for Visit Malaysia Year 2026 (VMY2026).

“So, tourism stakeholders in the states should always come up with new products and promotions because each state has its own target market,” he added.