Malaysia On Tourism Offensive At Dubai's Arabian Travel Market

Malaysia is highlighting a wide range of tourism products at the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2010 in a bid to entice more tourists from West Asia and beyond to visit the Southeast Asian country.

Leading the charge at Malaysia's 17th participation in the ATM from tomorrow until Friday at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre is Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen.

According to Azizan Noordin, Tourism Malaysia's deputy director-general for planning, the target is to lure 300,000 Arab visitors to Malaysia in 2010, from 284,890 recorded in 2009.

The tourism promotion agency is eyeing 85,000 visitors from Saudi Arabia and 30,000 from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as well as 115,000 from Iran this year, among others.

The target audience for the West Asian market included families, young adults, members of royal families and high-end market, special interest groups, honeymooners, corporate groups, business travellers and students, he told Bernama ahead of the event.

"One of our objectives in Dubai is to promote Malaysia as a top-of-mind tourist destination as well as strengthen our marketing and promotional activities involving players such as travel agents, airlines and corporate sectors," Azizan said.

He reckoned that Arab visitors would continue to be attracted by shopping and scenes of urban life in Malaysia.

Family-oriented activities like those available at theme parks such as Genting Highlands, Sunway Lagoon and A'Famosa Resort also generate interest among tourists from this region.

"This is because the Arabs are more likely to go on vacation with their families rather than taking a group tour (involving strangers)," he said.

Azizan said Malaysia's numerous islands and beaches, including Penang and the resort island of Langkawi, would continue to be high on the list of things to do among Arab travellers.

Malaysia will also be reinforcing its niche products such as ecotourism, homestay programme, wedding and honeymoon packages, health tourism, wellness and spa, yachting, horse-riding and education tourism, at the ATM 2010.

"We're also giving attention to high-end tourists, enticing them with luxury vacations in places like Langkawi and Pangkor," Azizan said, adding that golfing and the Malaysia My Second Home programme were also geared towards this market segment.

Five Malaysian states -- Sabah, Terengganu, Penang, Selangor and Kedah -- will be touting their tourist attractions during ATM 2010, billed as the Middle East's premier travel and tourism show.

For 2010, Malaysia has set a target of 24 million tourist arrivals and an estimated revenue of RM54 billion.

From 22.05 million visitor arrivals in 2008, Malaysia welcomed 23.65 million tourists in 2009.

It was one of seven countries to achieve positive growth in tourist arrivals last year when the rest of the world experienced a four per cent decline, no thanks to the global economic crisis and H1N1 influenza pandemic.

Azizan said Tourism Malaysia's efforts were also geared towards increasing the length of stay and tourist expenditure.

Data indicated that as far as the West Asian market was concerned, Saudi Arabia was among the trendsetters in 2009, its 68,000 visitors to Malaysia having chipped in RM495.7 million to the nation's coffers.

The Saudis recorded an average length of stay of 10.6 nights and RM6,430.8 in terms of average per capita expenditure.

Dr Ng is leading a 120-member delegation to the ATM 2010 consisting of representatives from 54 hotels, 22 travel and tour operators as well as the five states and Malaysia Airlines.

Her packed itinerary in Dubai includes attending the opening of the travel show and launch of the Malaysia Pavilion.

In between a string of interviews with local and international media outlets, the minister is also expected to hold talks with a number of key regional tourism players, including airline and tourism authority bosses.