Culture Minister Shaikha Mai bint Mohammed Al Khalifa received here yesterday the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Gulf Air Maher Al-Musallam. She discussed with him ways of enhancing cooperation between the Ministry and Gulf Air, and was informed about the possibility of launching some initiatives to attract tourists into the kingdom, amid the cultural and tourism momentum witnessed by Manama, as part of the functions of “Manama as Capital of Arab Tourism” for the Year 2013 and the Bahrain Summer Festival. She called for the need to activate joint cooperation and contacts in order to consolidate tourism activities and cultural exchange during the Bahrain Summer Festival 2013, as part of “leisure tourism” functions included in the Bahrain as Capital of Arab Tourism for the year 2013, noting that fostering tourism and revamping the cultural infrastructure is the shared responsibility of the both government and private sides. On his part, Al-Musallam commended the efforts of the Culture Ministry to promote cultural and tourism development in the kingdom, expressing delight in the existing effective cooperation between the Ministry and Gulf Air. He added that the national carrier will offer promotions on its tickets for passengers travelling to the Kingdom on board Gulf Air during the Bahrain Summer Festival. He affirmed Gulf Air’s constant keenness to activate tourism attraction mechanisms.