Tourism Malaysia's MEGAMEET sets to boost foreign arrivals

KUALA LUMPUR - In line with the celebration of the Malaysia Year of Festivals 2015, Tourism Malaysia organised the inaugural MALAYSIA MEGAMEET as a part of its continuous efforts to make the country a top-of-mind tourist destination.

A total of 133 tour operators, 16 media, and four airlines representatives from Americas, Europe, Oceania, ASEAN, North and East Asia, West Asia and Africa, participated in the programme from 29 March to 4 April. The MALAYSIA MEGAMEET comprises a travel seminar, travel mart, product updates and post-tour.

This special B2B networking programme opened at Istana Hotel Kuala Lumpur by Tourism Malaysia’s Director General Dato’ Mirza Mohammad Taiyab. He also gave the participants an update on the country’s tourism performance and developments to enable them to sell and promote the country better to their clients and readers.

Representatives from Genting Berhad’s 20th Century Fox Theme Park and Mitsui Outlet Park KLIA also took the opportunity to share their upcoming attractions with the participants.

Besides to showcase the country’s fascinating tourism offerings, the MALAYSIA MEGAMEET aims to provide a platform for the participants to meet, network, and establish business opportunities and cooperation with the Malaysian tour operators through a travel mart.

“The assistance of foreign media and tour operators is vital to our success in boosting the country’s arrivals and receipts, and meet our annual target. It is even more important this year as we’re celebrating the Malaysia Year of Festivals or MyFest 2015,” explained Dato’ Mirza.

“We hope the tours will motivate the media to promote destinations in Malaysia through their interesting articles. As for the tour operators, we hope they’ll get a better idea on what and how to package Malaysia, and then create more exciting and creative tour packages to the country,” the Director General added.

While the tour operators were attending the travel mart, members of the media enjoyed a food trail organised by the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) and a shopping tour at Sunway Pyramid.

All the participants visited the Malaysia Handicraft Complex at Jalan Conlay on 31 March, besides enjoying the musical MUD: Our Story of Kuala Lumpur at Panggung Bandaraya KL.

The Minister of Tourism and Culture Dato’ Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz hosted a farewell dinner at Perdana Botanical Garden, Lake Garden, on the same day.

From 1 to 3 April, the participants departed for their selected post-tour to either Penang and Kedah, Royal Belum and Ipoh, Johor and Melaka, Mulu National Park, or Kota Kinabalu.

In 2014, Malaysia received 27.4 million tourists, signifying a growth of 6.7% compared to 25.7 million tourists in 2013. For the same period, tourist receipts have also increased by 10% to RM72 billion from RM65.4 billion. The MALAYSIA MEGAMEET is Tourism Malaysia’s effort to boost the country’s arrivals and receipts further to help achieve this year’s target of 29.4 million arrivals with RM89 billion in receipt.

sourced:traveldailynews.asia