GEORGE TOWN: In a bid to revive the tourism industry, which has been badly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, Penang and AirAsia today announced a new collaboration.
The collaboration will offer more travel options and value-added services to domestic tourists visiting the state.
It features flights and hotel combos covering more than 25 hotels, from as low as RM49 per person for a 3D2N stay.
For those who prefer a more luxurious stay at four to five star hotels, there are also affordable deals from RM179/pax with 3D2N stay.
The campaign takes place from tomorrow until Sunday for travel periods valid from Jan 4 to March 31, next year.
State Tourism and Creative Economy Committee chairman Yeoh Soon Hin said the state has been observing a positive rebound in tourism activities after inter-state travel was allowed.
"We are working towards accelerating the recovery of tourism, supporting jobs and the economy and increasing tourism receipts.
"Partnering with key travel players like Airasia.com will assist us to amplify our efforts and to offer more diverse travel and tourism products by leveraging on their product offerings," he said in his office in Komtar.
Present were Penang Global Tourism (PGT) chief executive officer Ooi Chok Yan and AirAsia regional commercial head Tan Mai Yin.
Elaborating, Yeow said the hotels in the lower category included Brown and May Hotel here and Sunway Seberang Jaya on the mainland.
He added that the more luxurious hotels included Golden Sands and Hard Rock.
Penang, said Yeoh, is committed to putting all safety measures in place while sustaining efforts to revive Penang's travel industry.
Meanwhile, Tan said AirAsia has been observing significant surge in flight bookings since the lifting of the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) in the state recently.
"We see high traffic coming into AirAsia, and here at AirAsia, we are ready to meet the demands. In fact, we are set for full recovery," she said.
Citing an example, Tan said the Kuala Lumpur-Penang route has seen an increase to 35 flights weekly now from 10 during the CMCO, with other routes like Johor Baru-Penang (25 flights weekly now from 10 during the CMCO) and Langkawi-Penang (from seven to 25 flights weekly) also seeing an increase.