Nazri said the deal with Boeing was especially important to promote Malaysia as one of the world’s most visited countries.
“We have been one of the world’s top 12 destinations for many years. We want to maintain this.
“We can’t have people flying to Malaysia on 50-year-old aircraft,” he said at the opening of the Holiday Law Conference at the Malaysia Tourism Centre (MaTiC) here today.
Nazri said Najib’s meeting with US President Donald Trump was timely to promote tourism to Malaysia, and that his announcement to buy additional planes for Malaysia Airlines could not have come at a better time.
According to him, Malaysia Airlines is in dire need of additional planes, and the plan to purchase more aircraft will assist in boosting the country’s tourism industry.
“Our tourism industry also needs this. Malaysia cannot have a national carrier that only flies to London. Tourist arrivals from there are only 500,000. How about France, Italy? We need to account for them, too.
“So, with regard to Najib’s spending spree on planes in the US, I would like to say thank you.”
He added that the tourism industry needed support from both the government and the private sector in order for Malaysia to stay on track to achieving RM168 billion in tourist receipts and 36 million in tourist arrivals by 2020.
Last year, he said, Malaysia recorded 26.8 million tourist arrivals with RM82.1 billion in tourist receipts. About 75% of these arrivals came from the Asean region.
Najib announced the plan to buy additional planes for Malaysia Airlines during a visit to the White House last Tuesday, telling Trump that the national carrier would buy 25 Boeing 737 jets and eight 787 Dreamliners.
Najib said the airline would probably add another 25 737s in the near future, a deal he said would be worth more than US$10 billion within five years.
Trump thanks Najib as Malaysia looks to buy US$10 billion jets