KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia Airlines and Tourism New Zealand this morning signed a memorandum of understanding with the objective of promoting travel and tourism to New Zealand. Under the MOU, MAS and Tourism New Zealand will work together to develop markets of common interests, undertake joint marketing programmes, host famliarisations for travel agents and media, and launched joint projects for New Zealand. Both parties will set also aside a "substantial budget" to carry out these programmes. On the benefits for the MAS, its senior general manager, sales, distribution and marketing, Ahmad Fuaad Dahlan said, "Visitor arrivals to New Zealand have been growing strongly, not only from Asia but also Europe and the Middle East, which are also key markets to us. "This shows the growing importance of the Malaysian market to New Zealand. The new pact with MAS will not only increase the number of Malaysians to New Zealand but will also encourage travellers to New Zealand to fly with MAS, which in turn will develop the KL International Airport as a regional hub." "We can also entice the travellers to break their journey and stay in Malaysia enroute to, or when returning from New Zealand." On why Tourism New Zealand chose Malaysia Airlines as its first Asian airline partner, its general manager operations, Tim Hunter, said that Malaysia has been a strong performer to New Zealand in both holiday travel and in the meetings and incentive market. Last year 21,000 Malaysians visited New Zealand and 11,400 New Zealanders visited Malaysia. By working together and coordinating activities on both inbound and outbound both countries will benefit." From October 29, MAS will add two direct flights from Kuala Lumpur to Auckland, in addition to the five weekly flights to Auckland via Brisbane, to cater to increased demand. As "one of the first tangible outputs of this new relationship, Tourism new Zealand is holding its premier Asian travel industry event, Kia Oria, in Kuala Lumpur for the first time. The three-day show, starting today, will bring together 100 of Asia’s top travel agents where they will be meeting with at least 45 tourism businesses from New Zealand.