Virgin Atlantic Airways (Virgin Atlantic Group) Chairman Sir Richard Branson met in Tokyo Mr. Shingo Endo, Sales Director of Step by Step International, which is World Aviation Group’s Japanese market partner representing Air Malta in the Japanese market. This encounter took place during Virgin Atlantic Airways celebration commemorating their 25th year of their operations to Japan. Mr. Shingo Endo, has been a strong promoter of Malta as a tourist destination collaborating with a number of different global airlines, especially with Virgin Atlantic. During this social encounter Sir Richard shared a thought that he could be seriously considering participating in the Malta Marathon next year. Mr. Shingo Endo expressed special appreciation for Sir Richard Branson that Sales, PR Executives from Tokyo and flight attendants based in London and writer/cameraman, all together 10 members, participated in last Malta marathon. They kindly made special Virgin Atlantic and AirMalta running shirts and made marathon race a very cheerful event.
Around 5 years ago, Step by Step International, entered into an agreement with World Aviation Systems to represent Air Malta in the Japanese market. World Aviation Systems, a member of World Aviation Group (www.worldaviationgroup.eu) is an associated company of Air Malta responsible to promote and sell Air Malta in many parts of Asia, North America, North Africa and Australasia. The Maltese company collaborates with top agencies to execute the mission of promoting the airline but at the same time it is in the forefront of promoting Malta in these specific markets.
Step by Step International through the continuous efforts of Mr. Shingo Endo has been extremely successful in promoting Malta as an attractive tourist destination in Europe through various marketing initiatives such as Cultural Tours and English Language courses. Traditionally, sports always had a significant presence in the Japanese culture. The Japanese are extremely active in a variety of sports activities including the traditional Japanese sports such as Ju-do, Karate and Kendo as well as imported sport such as baseball, marathon and athletics. Therefore, the participation of Sir Richard Branson in the Malta Marathon next year might trigger an additional promotional initiative for Mr. Shingo Endo to boost up incoming tourism to Malta during the period of such event.
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