GfK and MATTA establish partnership to help grow tourism sector in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR - GfK and the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) officially announced their collaboration to provide dynamic travel-related insights for the Malaysian tourism sector. In an agreement signed last week, participating MATTA travel agent members will be providing GfK with weekly consolidated, live booking data.

GfK is one of the leading market insights companies worldwide and has developed specialised solutions for the travel and hospitality industry. The GfK Travelscan, which is based on consolidated and aggregated industry booking data, is used by travel industry to better predict market developments and increase their efficiency.

“GfK has established tie-ups with travel association all over the world, and we are very pleased to now have MATTA on board, as experiences have shown that such collaborations will indeed bring value to its members,” said Laurens Van Den Oever, Global Industry Lead for Travel & Hospitality. “At the same time, this continues to strengthen and support GfK’s mission to provide reliable and updated market data for the travel and hospitality industry globally and now in Malaysia as well."

GfK began laying the foundation for Travelscan last year by securing partnerships with 10 major players in the travel sector. Companies including Scoot, Expedia, Flight Centre and others have already started to provide inputs on their respective forward booking transactions into the GfK Travelscan platform. Just recently in March this year, GfK successfully secured their first tie-up with the National Association of Travel Agent Singapore (NATAS)—its first such collaboration in Asia. The latest development in Malaysia with MATTA is anticipated to encourage even more of its members to join the GfK program.

“The use of technology in the travel and tourism landscape by both consumers and industry players alike is becoming more widespread, and MATTA recognizes the need for the industry to leverage on technology in order to remain competitive in the market and relevant to the modern consumer,” said MATTA President Hamzah Rahmat. “I am confident that the valuable insights derived from the partnership between MATTA and GfK will be beneficial to help the Malaysian travel industry grow to its fullest potential.”

GfK has established similar partnerships in Europe and other parts of the world with Travelscan being accepted as the market currency for tourism research in these markets. Besides Singapore, the company is also expanding its travel expertise to other countries across Asia Pacific. The first integrated travel report for Singapore is anticipated to be ready by end-June 2015.

sourced:traveldailynews.asia