Tourism Malaysia at WTM2015 to Promote Malaysia

 

Tourism Malaysia at WTM 2015 London to Promote Malaysia

The Minister of Tourism and Culture Malaysia Dato’ Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz is leading a delegation to promote the country’s tourism offerings and tour packages at the 36th World Travel Market (WTM) London. The four-day business-to-business exhibition for the global travel and tourism industry begins today at ExCel, Docklands.

The Malaysian delegation is comprised of 84 members from 44 organisations, including travel agents, hotels, and airlines, as well as state tourism agencies, namely Tourism Promotional Division Melaka. Tourism Perak, Pesona Terengganu, Penang Global Tourism, Sabah Tourism Board, Sarawak Tourism Board, Langkawi Development Authority (LADA) and Putrajaya Cooperation. The Malaysian delegation will take advantage of this excellent platform to reach out to industry players, media, and travellers here.

WTM 2015 marks the 32nd year of Tourism Malaysia’s participation in the prestigious event since it began in 1983, which reflects the country’s commitment in attracting more travellers from London and Europe to its shores. The event, deemed the most important travel fair in the European market, is the main platform for Malaysia to promote its tourism offerings and introduce its new and upcoming tourist attractions to British and European travellers.

Through its participation in the event, Tourism Malaysia aims to raise and maintain Malaysia’s image as a top tourism destination in the region, besides strengthening its promotional efforts in UK, particularly London. It will also meet and forge closer relationship with industry players from UK and Europe to get their support to sell packages to Malaysia.

Earlier today, Dato’ Seri Mohamed Nazri launched a Taxi Wrap Campaign as part of Tourism Malaysia’s promotional efforts in conjunction with WTM 2015. Throughout November, a total of 80 taxis in London are wrapped with visuals of the country’s attractions, such as culture, nature, and beach.

Besides that, the Tourism Culture Minister is scheduled to attend the “UNWTO WTM Minister’s Summit 2015” on 3 November to share Malaysia’s tourism experience through a panel discussion on “Destination Branding: New Challenges in a Changing Market”.

In the evening, Tourism Malaysia will be hosting a cocktail reception at Malaysia Pavilion to thank the industry players in UK and Europe for their support, as well as to network and forge a closer relationship with them.

To ensure the continuous growth of arrivals from UK and Europe, the participation of Tourism Malaysia in this event will strengthen the relationship and increase cooperation with British and European industry players and media to ensure a high awareness and market presence of Malaysia.

A total of 445,789 British tourists visited Malaysia in 2014 compared to 413,472 tourists in 2013, signifying a 7.8% increase.

Japan’s Taxi Association Visits Malaysia

Japan's Taxi Association Visits Malaysia

The Minister of Tourism and Culture Malaysia Dato’ Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz hosted a dinner to welcome 50 members of Sango Taxi Association from Osaka and two members each from Kobe and Fukuoka’s taxi associations at the Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur Hotel today.

This is the second visit to Malaysia organised by Sango Taxi Association to enable their members and taxi associations from other cities to get first-hand experience of the country’s tourism attractions.

During the dinner, Dato’ Seri Mohamed Nazri expressed his appreciation to the members of the Japan’s taxi associations for their assistance in promoting Malaysia to their passengers and clients in Japan.

“It is amazing to see that the members of these taxi associations have taken the initiative to visit Malaysia at their own expenses in an effort to get to know the country better so that they can share their experiences with their family, friends, and passengers in Japan. At the same time, they can also be a spokesperson for Malaysia,” he said.

The Minister of Tourism and Culture also said that such commitment shown by them is exemplary and should be applauded and appreciated.

Their weeklong tour to various parts of Malaysia, beginning today, is organised by Tourism Malaysia. It includes a Destination Seminar and a tour to Genting Highlands, Kuala Lumpur, and Melaka.

Japan Taxi 2016

The artwork on the Japan Taxi for Visit Malaysia.

Tourism Malaysia has been collaborating with various taxi associations across Japan in eight of its major cities, namely Osaka, Tokyo, Kobe, Yokohama, Kyoto, Fukuoka, Nagoya, and Sapporo, in an advertising campaign called Taxi Wrapping, which involves 1,060 taxis. It is part of Tourism Malaysia’s continuous efforts to promote Malaysia’s tourist destinations to Japanese tourists.

Tourism Malaysia is the only National Tourism Organisation allowed to carry out the taxi wrapping campaign in Japan due to the close diplomatic, economic and cultural relations between Malaysia and Japan. The taxi wrapping campaign is more cost-effective compared to other terms of mainstream advertising, besides producing high recall and response levels from consumers.

 Japan is one of Malaysia’s top ten tourist generating markets. Malaysia recorded a total of 149,951 Japanese tourists for the first four months of 2015. This year, Malaysia aims to attract 600,000 Japanese tourists to the country in conjunction with the Malaysia Year of Festivals (MyFest).

With better connectivity between Malaysia and Japan through direct flights by Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia X, Japan Airlines, and All Nippon Airways from Tokyo (41 flights per week), and Osaka (14 flights per week), Tourism Malaysia foresees higher passenger traffic between the two countries in the future.