Travel Fair can further boost domestic tourism, says Minister
Published on: Friday, July 26, 2019
By: Ricardo Unto
Ahmad and others at the launch of Tourism Malaysia Travel Fair.
Kota Kinabalu: Business-to-consumer (B2C) programmes like the Tourism Malaysia Travel Fair can further boost the growth of domestic tourism sector.This, Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Mohamaddin Ketapi said would increase the revenues of the country’s tourism industry.
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“Furthermore, this sector (domestic tourism) is able to help sustain the country’s tourism industry if there are global challenges that could affect the flow of international tourists to Malaysia,” he said during the launching of the Tourism Malaysia Travel Fair, at Suria Sabah, here, Thursday.
His speech was read by Tourism Malaysia chairman Datuk Ahmad Shah Hussein Tambakau.
Mohamaddin said some 78.2 million domestic tourists had been recorded in 2018 which was an increase of 10.9 per cent as compared to the previous year.
“The domestic tourism receipts also witnessed a growth of 11.7 per cent in 2018 with RM60.4 billion.”
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Apart from that, he said, the government has recently launched the Malaysian Travel Incentive (Gamelan Malaysia) to intensify the progress of the tourism industry.
“The RM5 million special tourism allocation aims to help industry players who are involved in promotion and marketing to increase the arrival of foreign tourists as well as to strengthen domestic tourism.
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“I hope to see the country’s tourism industry grow through such incentive,” he said.
Meanwhile, affordable travel packages are being offered at the Tourism Malaysia Travel Fair at Suria Sabah to encourage more Sabahans to travel around the country.
The three-day event, Mohamaddin said, is a good platform to bring together tourism players to show Sabahans the many interesting attractions and destinations in other states.
“At the same time, industry players taking part in this travel fair have the opportunity to form partnerships among themselves to develop high quality and exciting tourism packages for the consumers.”
Some 40 industry players from all over Malaysia took part in the programme.
“I am confident that such programme will help industry players to market their products directly to consumers, and this time to Sabahans.
“Through this approach, Sabahans can gain detailed and latest information on various destinations and tourism products offered by these players,” he said.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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