JEDDAH, 9 July — Morocco is expected to attract 100,000 visitors this summer, 30,000 more than the previous average of 70,000, according to Mustafa Al-Boroji, director of Royal Air Maroc for Saudi Arabia and Yemen. “The volume of travelers between Saudi Arabia and Morocco has registered a 40 percent increase this year compared to the past several years,” Boroji told Arab News, adding that the airline had newly introduced Boeing 767 aircraft between the two countries. He attributed the increase of visitors from this part of the world to the developments following the Sept. 11 events. “Saudi families now choose Arab destinations instead of going to the West,” he added. According to him, a large number of expatriate travelers bound for Africa, Europe and Canada also prefer the Air Maroc and use Moroccan airports as a transit point because of availability of easy and comfortable connections. Morocco’s national airline has also organized several cultural and tourist programs to highlight attractions in the country. Riyadh and Jeddah hosted Moroccan food festivals in the recent past to promote tourist interests in that country. The airline launched several summer special tourist programs covering the country’s lesser-known tourist places in concert with Moroccan Tourist Bureau in Jeddah. The programs aimed at familiarizing tourist locations other than Aghadir and Casablanca — the most common destinations for Saudis. Al-Boroji said a tourist promotion delegation from Tangiers, one of the most ancient cities in northern Morocco, visited the kingdom lately to launch several tourist packages covering Tangiers and other north Moroccan locations. (Jalal Fakkar)
Swiss airlines announces
new legal name
JEDDAH — Swiss airlines has announced its new registered name — Swiss International Air Lines Ltd. with immediate effect. The name change follows the decision by the company’s shareholders at their AGM to conduct future flight operations under the SWISS brand and change the company name from Swiss Air Lines to Swiss International Airlines Ltd. to reflect the carrier’s new strategic orientation. “SWISS intends to join a global alliance to provide vital transportation links to the airline’s key markets, while offering travelers the quality service standards that it is now for, via its main hub Zurich,” said Werner Rohrer, SWISS sales and marketing manager for Middle East & Asia. In keeping with the new registered identity worldwide, local operations of SWISS for the region have been effected with the new legal name and this will be reflected in all marketing communications. In the light of the change in company name, the shares of Swiss International Air Lines Ltd. will now trade on the SWX Swiss stock exchange under the ticker symbol of SWIN instead of CRON. The shares’ security number remains unchanged. SWISS, the new intercontinental airline that launched operations in April this year, has a fleet of 128 planes. It flies to 126 destinations in 59 countries worldwide. The Middle East regional schedule includes 31 weekly flights comprising daily flights from Dubai, six weekly flights from Cairo, four weekly flights from Karachi, three weekly flights from Riyadh, Muscat, Abu Dhabi, Tehran and twice weekly from Jeddah. (KSR)
