By V. Sivaji
The Penang State Government welcomes the announcement by AirAsia to commence direct flights from Penang to Kota Baru, Kelantan beginning from this Tuesday, December 22.
Although these are “baby steps” towards the recovery of domestic tourism, at least the move is on the right direction.
“We welcome this move and its definitely good news since domestic tourism is the pillar of tourism industry now and for the coming months and it will definitely make the interconnection and travelling easier for domestic travel.
“With the new route, we definitely are working towards the gradual resumption of various feasible routes to strategically connect Penang, which is gateway to northern region, to other states,” said Penang State Exco for Tourism and Creative Economy, Yeoh Soon Hin to Penang Hyperlocal.
Apart from this new route, AirAsia began operations for the Kota Baru to Langkawi route yesterday (Dec 19) followed by the Johor Bahru to Kota Baru route (Dec 22) and Ipoh to Langkawi route on Dec 23 respectively.
“The recovery of domestic tourism will be a collective effort from everyone in the industry and AirAsia is committed towards it from both the perspective of increasing the connectivity of domestic network coupled with low fares, as well as continued stringent health and hygiene procedures for everyone to travel confidently,” said airasia.com Chief Commercial Officer Amanda Woo in a press statement.
Meanwhile, when contacted, the Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH Penang Chapter) chairman, Raj Kumar applauded the new connection which will surely help the hospitality industry and the state’s continuous efforts to revive the domestic tourism sector.
“Slowly but surely, we will see some form of normality return to the overall tourism industry and those whose livelihood are dependent on this service,” added Raj who is also the general manager of the Light Hotel Seberang Jaya here.
The Penang Director for the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC), Jonathan Freddy Bagang concurred with Raj to add that the primary target now is to grow domestic tourism.
“Surely, with the partnership with AirAsia, we can overcome the challenges we are facing during these testing times.
“With this new route, it will also help to promote/encourage border tourism among Southern Thailand (example Narathiwat ) to Malaysia (Kelantan / Penang) when the borders open up,” he added.
All flight bookings made from now up to 31 December 2020 with the travel period from now until 31 March 2021 are entitled to unlimited date changes with no flight change fee via My Bookings.
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