Malaysia Tourism targets 400 thousand Arab tourists in 2012

Malaysia Tourism strongly participates in the largest trade and consumer travel show in the Gulf region, the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) through a big tourism delegation consists of 129-member. The highly anticipated annual event will take place at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre in UAE from 30th April to 3rd May 2012.

Malaysia Tourism will reviews during the 4 days exhibition the most important achievements of Tourism industry last year together with the great facilities offered by the country for visitors from the Middle East region as well as the future plans in attracting more Arab tourists, and will also answer questions and queries from journalists of all newspapers and magazines, local, Arab and international ones. 

Tourism Malaysia's Director for International Marketing Division (South Asia/ West Asia/ Africa), Mr. Zulkifly Md invites nationals of the Gulf States and Arab tourists to benefit from the privileges and facilities provided by his country. In the same time, Tourism Malaysia targeted 400 hundred thousand tourists in 2012 from the GCC countries.

For his part, Mr. Zulkifly Md expressed his optimism on the results of this year ATM, and said: " We are more confident in this forum to achieve our ambitions of the previous forums, "noting that the number of incoming tourists from the Middle East to Malaysia is on the rise, thanks to a continuous policy adopted by our Government to provide the best services for Arab tourists."

Our growth expectation of foreign tourists to Malaysia 12.1 in 2011 despite the ongoing global economic crisis, Mr. Zulkifly said.

Malaysia's participation in ATM for the 19th time this year is a clear demonstration of the country's commitment and efforts in attracting more tourists, particularly from West Asia, to its shores.

Leading the Malaysian delegation to ATM is Tourism Malaysia's Director for

International Marketing Division (South Asia/ West Asia/ Africa), Mr. Zulkifly Md Said.

This year's delegation comprises 76 government and private sector organisations, which include 43 hotels, 22 travel & tour operators, 7 State Governments, and 4 tourism product operators.

A cocktail reception for the buyers, travel agents and media will be held on 1st May, 4.00pm, at the Malaysia Pavilion (booth AS2640).

Other programmes in Dubai include courtesy calls to heads of airlines, as well as several interviews with Arab media.

Among the focus of the Malaysian delegation at ATM this year are the promotion of the states in the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, as well as the states of Sabah and Sarawak.

Besides participating in ATM, some of the Malaysian delegates are expected to join Tourism Malaysia in its sales mission to Riyadh and Jeddah, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from 4th to 8th May. The sales mission aims to further strengthen Malaysia's presence in the market.

A gala dinner is scheduled to be held at both destinations to give guests a glimpse of the tourism attractions in Malaysia. Besides that, courtesy calls and meetings with tourism players will also be carried out.

The ATM is indeed an ideal platform for the Malaysian delegation to network and form strategic alliances with travel trade buyers from the Gulf region. At the same time, it will help strengthen the presence of Malaysia in the region.

Source - ameinfo