Gulf Air, the Kingdom of Bahrain’s national carrier, has appointed Jin Jiang, the largest travel and hotel conglomerate in China, as its new sales agent in the East Asian country, under an agreement signed at Gulf Air headquarters in Muharraq, Bahrain.

The signing of the agreement is a part of Gulf Air’s commitment to strengthen relations with Far East Asia to promote trade, tourism and business opportunities between the countries.

The signing ceremony was attended by Gulf Air Group CEO Dr Jeffrey Goh and Jinjiang Travel, Vice president Yates Fei.

Gulf Air CEO Captain Waleed Al-Alawi, said: “As part of our earlier announcement of new flights connecting Bahrain directly to China, we are excited to be strengthening our presence in the country as part of our strategy for network growth.

“The new partnership with Jin Jiang is an extension of our efforts to boost economic and tourist ties between the two countries and will provide valuable opportunities for passengers in China to explore tailor-made trips to maximize their experience with Gulf Air.”

Yates Fei said:” It is a perfect match that we are now in a position to consolidate a well renowned airline resource with our own hotel offerings for our mutual customers in the China market. Unlike many traditional travel agencies, we are now beyond a ‘middleman' role to forge a unique value proposition to get our products and services closer to the increasingly sophisticated Chinese travelers.

“At Jin Jiang, we are very excited for the coming journey with Gulf Air. We start from where we are as a GSA, aiming to get more fruits for both parties as we go down the path.”

The appointment will enable Jin Jiang to represent Gulf Air in Chinese markets to act as a sales representative and to promote Gulf Air’s products and services.

The partnership comes at a time when the national carrier announced its operations to Guangzhou and Shanghai to facilitate convenient connections between China and the destinations in the Middle East and Europe that Gulf Air serves. – TradeArabia News Service