Visit Year to spur Malaysia’s tourism

Malaysia expects to lift its annual tourist arrivals to 28 million through its Visit Malaysia Year promotion that kicked off in Kuala Lumpur 4 January.
Launching the special year to the travel trade attending ATF here in Kuching, Tourism Malaysia director general Dato Mirza Mohammad Taiyab said more than 200 events and an international marketing campaign built around the popular “Truly Malaysia” tagline will make the 28 million target achievable.
In 2013, he said tourist arrivals closed at an estimated 26 million. Visit Malaysia Year is part of a wider Vision 2020 plan that capitalises on the popular Truly Malaysia campaign first launched in 1999.
“We have enjoyed an overwhelming response from the Truly Malaysia branding… we intend to keep it as a very effective slogan…some elements will change, but the core element of the campaign says what were are.”
Visit Malaysia Year should generate M$76 billion in tourist receipts.
The Vision 2020 plan forecasts Malaysia welcoming 36 million visits and a revenue of M$168 billion by 2020.
The director general outlined the core objectives in the plan: Deliver affordable luxury holidays; strengthen nature and adventure holidays, capitalise on family markets; build events, spas and sports; and make significant advances in business tourism (conferences and incentives).
This is the third Visit Malaysia Year campaign and Tourism Malaysia assessment is they all were key drivers pushing the country’s tourism performance to the next level.
In the 1990 VMY the country welcomed 7.4 million visitors up 53.64%.
The 1994 did not perform as robustly with 7.2 million visitors and a 10.66% improvement due to external forces, but the VMY in 2007 pushed the country’s tourist arrivals to a record 21 million an increase of 19.52% on the previous year.
When asked if he was being over ambitious with the 2014 target of 28 million visits, the director general said there were solid indicators that the VMY year would perform well.
“We will open the KLIA 2 terminal 2 May and that will spur more airlines to add services, we have the room capacity around 195,000 rooms and more than 200 events promoting culture the central theme of Visit Malaysia Year.”

Sourced: TravelDailyNews