Air Mauritius bids to boost Malaysia trips

Air Mauritius in collaboration with Tourism Malaysia held a product presentation yesterday to promote Malaysia, which is already a very popular tourist, business and study destination for Mauritians. 

According to official statistics of the national carrier, at least 15,000 Mauritians travelled to Malaysia in 2010. Air Mauritius’s Raj Deenanath said that the new flight to Shanghai which will be inaugurated on July 4 and will transit in Kuala Lumpur will help boost the number of Mauritians visiting Malaysia. 

“With the new flight to Shanghai, we will have three frequencies to Kuala Lumpur in all. Kuala Lumpur is our preferred hub and with our code sharing agreements with Malaysian Airlines we will be able to offer around 10 destinations in Asia,” Mr Deenanath said. 

The representative of Malaysian Airlines, Mr Noran Ujang, said that the number of Mauritians who visited Malaysia has increased by 37.5% from 2009 to 2010. The Malaysian government is expecting to boost tourist arrivals from 24.5 million in 2010 to 36 million by 2020 with expected revenues of $56.2 billion. 

“Malaysia has been ranked in the top 10 most popular tourist destinations for 2010 with revenues of the industry attaining $17.93 billion.” 

He added that the aim of the presentation which also coincided with Malaysia Week was to better inform Mauritian tour operators about the innovations of the Malaysian tourism industry and new offers.