PUTRAJAYA, 23 MARCH 2016: Tourism Malaysia is organising a familiarisation trip to Malaysia for a group of media from Myanmar in conjunction with the inaugural Yangon-Penang connection by AirAsia. The programme is a collaborative effort with AirAsia and Penang Global Tourism.

The 17 media participants of the familiarisation trip arrived in Penang on 22 March aboard the AK1509 A320 carrier. The group from The Golden Land includes AirAsia Brand Ambassador, Myanmar Miss World 2015, Ms. Khin Yadanar Thein Myint, as well as television crew, journalists and bloggers. They are visiting the cultural, heritage, shopping and family attractions as well as hotel and medical facilities in Penang from 22 to 26 March.

A second familiarization trip will be organized for 12 Myanmar travel agents from 29 March to 2 April. They will be visiting major attractions in Penang and Ipoh, Perak.

Both groups are invited to Malaysia to help promote the destination’s varied culture, cuisine and family attractions to the people of Myanmar. The familiarisation programme will showcase Malaysia as an exciting and value-for-money destination as well as spark interest among the travel agents to develop attractive packages for the Myanmar market.

The Yangon-Penang AirAsia route flies three times a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Prior to this, Yangon is connected only to Kuala Lumpur via AirAsia (14 flights a week), Malaysia Airlines (14 flights) and Myanmar Air (4 flights). With this new development, air accessibility from Myanmar to Malaysia has increased to 35 flights a week offering 5,948 seats by AirAsia, Malaysia Airlines and Myanmar Air.

Last year, tourist arrivals from Myanmar to Malaysia registered a total of 66,553.