Tourism Malaysia is organizing a Mega Familiarisation Programme (Mega Fam) for a total of 223 participants from 23 countries in conjunction with the Colours of Malaysia 2009 celebration.

The participants, comprising travel agents, journalists and TV crew members from Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, China, Denmark, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Laos, Lithuania, Macau, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines, United Arab Emirates and United States of America will attend a tourism seminar at The Legend Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, on 20 March 2009.

They will listen to a presentation on Malaysian culture by the National University of Malaysia’s senior lecturer followed by Malaysia Airlines and Homestay Association Malaysia presentations. Later, they will be feted to a dinner hosted by Dato’ Amirrudin Abu, Acting Director General of Tourism Malaysia. The following day, they will witness the official grand launch of Colours of Malaysia 2009 by His Majesty the King of Malaysia at Merdeka Square.

Besides the Colours of Malaysia event, educational visits to selected tourism products and destinations within the country are also conducted for the participants.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The Mega Fam programme is organised with the support from local and foreign airlines, Malaysian hotels and state governments. Its main objective is to offer the participants a personal experience of what Malaysia has to offer to tourists. The exposure is also to heighten their awareness about tourist destinations, products and services in Malaysia in order to develop tour packages and generate publicity on the country as a preferred leisure and MICE destination.

However, since the beginning of this year, the Mega Fam Secretariat has been focusing more on promoting niche tourism products such as homestay, Malaysia My Second Home Programme and Health Tourism to its participants, in line with the Ministry of Tourism’s aspirations to promote these areas.

The publicity and exposure gained, especially through the participation of foreign media in this programme, has been very high. A total of 3,389 participants were hosted last year, generating a publicity value of over RM100 million. A total of 26 programmes were organised last year in conjunction with major festivals and tourism events.

For other media releases by Tourism Malaysia, please log on to www.tourism.gov.my. Among the latest releases are on Malaysia’s tourist arrivals statistics and niche tourism products, i.e. Homestay, Education tourism, Malaysia My Second Home programme, etc.

For more information on Mega Fam programmes, please contact:
Mr Rohaiza Haris
Mega Fam Secretariat
Communications & Publicity Division, Tourism Malaysia
25th Floor, Menara Dato’ Onn
Putra World Trade Centre
45, Jalan Tun Ismail
50480 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: +603 2615 8188
Fax: +603 2693 8299
E-mail: megafamsecretariat@tourism.gov.my

Issued by: Communications & Publicity Division, Tourism Malaysia
Date: 20 March 2009
Tel: +603 2615 8188; Fax: +603 2615 8299
For more information, e-mail: sitirahmah@tourism.gov.my
 Website: www.tourismmalaysia.gov.my