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TourismFirst_February_issue

OuTbOu Nd: MaLaysIa 23 that Malaysia has to offer to our guests from shopping to spas, adventure to homestay, golf vacations to theme parks, hiking to diving in ex- clusive spots, we have something for everyone. In 2017, while we continue to position Malaysia as a perfect family holiday des- tination, there will also be emphasis on experiential holidays like spa holidays, art and culture trips and culinary vacations. Also with UNWTO declaring the ‘International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Develop- ment, there will be focus on the 4 UNESCO sites in Malaysia namely: Kinabalu National Park in Sabah, Gunung Mulu National Park in Sarawak, Melaka & George Town in Penang and Archaeological Heritage of the Leng- gong Valley, Perak. Besides mainstream advertising, we will be participating in a host of marketing activities not just in the metros but also in the Tier II & III markets which is a growing segment. You will see a significant presence of Malaysia in the digital space as well. Joint promotions with airlines and on-ground partners are also mainstay in our marketing plans for the year. malaysia will focus on positioning itself as a destination for the niche segment and family outbound from india, says tourism minister We understand that the visa issue has been a restricting factor in creating move tailwind for footfalls from India. What is your take on it? As of Jan-Dec 2016, there was 453,815 visas that have been approved, which is an increase of 10.73% from the same period in 2015. Dif- ferent types of visa have been introduced to facilitate Indian tourists to Malaysia such as the e-Visa (online visa application) which was introduced to India since April 2016 and Visa on Arrival (validity of 7 days) was introduced in 2014. Immigration Department of Malay- sia together with Tourism Malaysia will be promoting the e-Visa services to increase awareness in the Indian market. how has Malaysia benefitted from this constant infrastructural infusion in the tourism sector? The improvements and upgrades to our public facilities such as MRT and airports enable us to provide greater convenience to tourists and facilitate their enjoyment of traveling to/within Malaysia. This gives them more opportunity to visits more products. Tourists can now conveniently travel from our borders with Thailand to the heart of Malaysia – Kuala Lumpur! given the global political scenario, with Europe staring at a tough year ahead, and the usa looking at putting in place protectionist measures, how crucial do you think tourism is to the global community? What role do you see tourism playing in limiting the impact of these factors? Tourism has always played a vital role in ensuring the growth of the world economy. It constitutes 10% of the world’s GDP and 7.0% of the world’s export. According to the latest survey of UNWTO’s Panel of Experts shows continued confidence in 2017, with the large majority (63%) of the some 300 respondents expecting ‘better’ or ‘much better’ results than in 2016. Based on current trends, the outlook of the UNWTO Panel of Experts and economic prospects, UNWTO projects inter- national tourist arrivals worldwide to grow at a rate of 3% to 4% in 2017. Europe is expected to grow at 2% to 3%, Asia and the Pacific and Africa both at 5% to 6%, the Americas at 4% to 5% and the Middle East at 2% to 5%, given the higher volatility in the region. India is no stranger to Malaysia. your campaign, “Truly asia” has been one of the most catchy and successful outreach campaigns. however, a large majority of Indian travellers remain unaware of the gamut of products and experiences that await them. how do you plan to drive destination awareness in the Indian market, and how important is India for your overall tourist footfalls? India is an important market for us, amongst the top six source markets for a long time now. In the past ten years, we have seen a growth from 150,000 tourists to over 722,000 tourists, which is quite significant. There have been changes in the traveller profile as well. Earlier, Malaysia was seen as one among the trin- ity including Singapore and Thailand. Now, we see people booking exclusive Malaysian holidays and also opting for places beyond Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi. These are all encouraging signs for us as there is so much malaysia: plans to unveil new products and destinations to regain momentum sulaiman suip, director, North & East India operations, Tourism Malaysia expressed hope that the shortfall in numbers from India in the recent months, after a tweak in visa regulations, was going to be a temporary setback. In an interview with TF, he detailed how the tourism board was going to channel its focus on introducing new products and destinations in the Indian market to regain its foothold. Excerpts: By ShAShAnK SheKhAr In your second innings here, what are some of the top priorities that you have? What are some of the priorities of the Malaysian tourism? Beside awareness, because of the competition we have in this market, we would like to push and try to resolve issues of the entry formalities to Malaysia as these formalities are dampen- ing the awareness and the demand from the market. What are your expectations now, ease in travel? Yes. We will try to resolve this issue to ease out travel. You know…it is a win-win situation for both parties. Neither we want to compromise on the security part and, again, we also want to have tourists. So, there must be a way in-between to resolve these things. Second is the awareness of Malaysia (as a destination). We have not been aggressively promoting ourselves in this market, so we will try to do a lot more promotion, especially joint promotions with our coun- terpart agents to attract some of the associations to come back and have a conference or convention in Malaysia. We have not had that in a long time. So, in order to strengthen and create more awareness for people to come back and see what Malaysia has to offer. If you mention asEaN, with all due respect to every country in the region, Malaysia has much to offer, if not more, than many other asEaN countries. The Malaysian tourism product is extremely diversified. Now how about promoting some of the lesser known, or lesser emphasized destinations? Apart from the traditional things we are promoting, like Langkawi and Kuala Lumpur, we are now moving into new products like Legoland we have in Johor; The Johor Premium outlet that we have there. It is not similar to the rest of what you have, around the world, but this outlet is specifi- cally operated by the brands itself. That is what makes it special. Now there is a new product coming in Ipoh – the Malaysian Animation Park studio – which is coming up by the first quarter, in March, it is opening its door. So, we are fo- cussing back on the Lost World of Tambun. The place is there, but unfortunately no aware- ness is created. The distance between Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh is getting shorter because we have trip services, connect- ing the two and cutting the time needed by half. Transportation is not an issue. We have the best resorts in the world. We have one of the most luxurious spas one can have – The Banjaran Hotsprings Retreat. So, there are a lot of new places that we are trying to put back and introduce to the Indian market. They have been asking for new products. These are the new products that we are introducing. how is the MICE market doing? We are not into the MICE so much, because it is overseen apart from the traditional things we are promoting, like Langkawi and Kuala Lumpur, we are now moving into new products like Legoland we have in Johor; The Johor Premium outlet that we have there. It is not similar to the rest of what you have, around the world, but this outlet is specifically operated by the brands itself. That is what makes it special.,, direCtor, north & eAst indiA operAtions, SulAIMAn SuIP toUrism mALAysiA by our counterpart, MYSEC (Malaysia Convention and Exhibition Bureau). So, we are more concentrated on the leisure market. What about luxury (market) out of India, because you have a whole lot of luxury products, particularly for spas and wellness? We have a lot of them. Yes, and also on medical tourism and educational tourism. We are pro- moting all these slowly. It is one of the best country for medical tourism. Each country has their own speciality. Thailand has certain areas, whereas Malaysia has certain areas. We have one of the best heart hospitals for doing open-heart surgeries in Malaysia. Our National Institute is the best; we have some of the best specialists there. It is the best. And then we have some of the best hospitals in the world. any specific plans for mounting some more aggression in the Indian market? I look after the north and east part of the Indian market. Travellers from Delhi and other northern areas prefer more of beaches and such like – the mountains, beaches and nature. Whereas the Mumbai area is more into shopping and entertainment; southern part is more into leisure. how did the numbers do in 2016? For 2016, we do not have a complete figure yet. Till October, we did not have a positive one, but not by that much. September was recorded at -6.7% as compared to 2015. Hopefully, by 2017 with aggressive campaigns, we should be able to surpass what we have achieved in 2015.

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