One lucky tourist passing through the Kuala Lumpur International Airport before June next year will take home a brand new Jaguar sports car under a shopping campaign launched today to woo more travellers.

The project aims to turn the four-year-old KLIA into a shopping haven as part of efforts to become a regional aviation hub.

Apart from prizes the "KLIA Shopping" campaign gives travellers a guarantee that prices at KLIA are lower than downtown and they will be refunded double the price difference if not.

It comes just six months after the airport embarked on a RM10 million ringgit marketing campaign to boost passenger traffic to 18 million this year from 14.6 million in 2001.

Tremendous challenges

"There have been tremendous challenges faced by the industry due to the current sluggish global economic environment and negative effects from the September 11, 2001 incident," said Malaysia Airports Holdings chairman Basir Ismail.

Passenger traffic hit 1.02 million in August, up from 997,482 in July, boosted by higher international arrivals, especially from the Middle East, he said.

"With the additional thrust offered by this campaign, we are confident of achieving our target of 18 million passengers by the end of the year."

Basir said the company would continue to "aggresively market" KLIA after wooing five new airlines this year Kyrgystan Airlines, Yemenia Yemen Airways, Xiamen Airlines, Kuwait Airlines and Air Macau.

Thirty-four airlines now operate at the 10.7-billion-ringgit showpiece airport, including 12 freight carriers.