Malaysia, Azerbaijan strengthen tourism cooperation

AZRA’s Nahid Bagirov and MATTA’s Akil Yusof forge closer ties with the bilateral tourism partnership

Tourism Malaysia has announced a Malaysia-Azerbaijan cooperative tourism initiative, marking a strategic bilateral effort to woo more tourists from Azerbaijan and the Caucasus region to Malaysia.

The initiative is between Azerbaijan Tourism Association (AZTA) and Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA), who yesterday signed a partnership memorandum at Malaysia Tourism Information Centre (MaTiC), Jalan Ampang, during the Malaysia-Azerbaijan Tourism Networking session.

The two-year cooperation (2019-2020) will see both parties working with local travel agents to develop special tour packages for both countries. It will also pave the way for discussions to establish possible flight connections.

“The cooperation between both tourism parties is timely and strategic as Azerbaijan is a growing market with great potential for us to tap into the leisure and high-end market segments. We look forward to seeing flight and tour packages developed for this market as we welcome more Azerbaijanis to Malaysia,” said Zulkafli Yahya, Tourism Malaysia’s senior director of international promotion division for America, Europe and Oceania.

In 2017, Malaysia recorded a total of 1,035 tourist arrivals from Azerbaijan, a 12.1 per cent increase in comparison to 2016.

The growth trend continued this year with an increase of 18.8 per cent in arrivals in the first four months, bringing the total of Azerbaijani tourist arrivals to Malaysia to 448 between January and April 2018.

In a statement, Tourism Malaysia said that arrival figures, though small, indicate a growing demand for Malaysia by the Azerbaijanis despite the absence of direct flight connections, limited tourism promotions and lack of a Tourism Malaysia representation in the country.

Azerbaijan is currently served by Tourism Malaysia offices in Turkey and Moscow.

source: TTG Asia