BERLIN, 9 March 2017 – Malaysia registered interest to be official country partner for Internationale Tourisme Bourse (ITB) in 2019, the world's premier travel fair in Germany.

Minister of Tourism and Culture, the Hon. Dato’ Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz has confirmed Malaysia’s interest in being the country partner for ITB 2019 in a meeting at the Malaysia Pavilion held with Mr. David Ruetz, head of ITB, and Mr. Richard Barnes, editor-in-chief of ITB Berlin News.

As a partner, Malaysia will benefit from the extensive publicity and promotional mileage of this esteemed organisation. Beginning October 2017, Malaysia will be featured extensively in all of its communication channels to its international linkages.

Malaysia has been participating in this travel fair since 1972 and this year is Malaysia’s 45th participation. The Hon. Minister is leading a delegation of 42 organisations comprising 110 participants representing state governments, hoteliers, airlines, tour operators and travel agencies. The state of Pahang, Terengganu and Perak made a special presentation of their promotions of their respective state visit years.

Germany is a major source of tourists to Malaysia from Europe. In 2016, 130,276 tourists from Germany visited Malaysia while total arrivals from Europe was 1,111,899.

It is hoped that with this new venture and a series of other initiatives, tourist arrivals to Malaysia from this region will grow.

Tourism Malaysia is actively pursuing joint promotions with major carriers servicing Europe like Singapore Airlines, KLM, Turkish Airlines, Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways to address the issue of limited accessibility.

“We are very encouraged by the positive response by the travel industry of Germany and the airlines and it bodes well for the future of our industry as we approach the targets set by Malaysia Tourism Transformation Plan (MTTP) 2020” said the Minister.

ENDS

For more media releases, media info and media features on Malaysia’s tourism industry, kindly visit the Media Centre of Tourism Malaysia’s website at http://www.tourism.gov.my/

MALAYSIA TOURISM PROMOTION BOARD OR TOURISM MALAYSIA is an agency under the Ministry of Tourism & Culture, Malaysia. It focuses on the specific task of promoting Malaysia as a preferred tourism destination. Since its inception, it has emerged as a major player in the international tourism sceneIn 2016, Malaysia registered 26.8 million tourist arrivals, placing it among the major tourism destinations of the world.

Press contact:

Media Relations Unit:
Mohd Libra Lee Haniff, Deputy Director, Corporate Communication Division
Tel: +603-8891 8752
Email: mohdlibra@tourism.gov.my

Editorial Unit:

Anis Rozalina Ramli (Ms), Senior Editor, Corporate Communication Division
Tel: +603-8891 8759
Email: anisramli@tourism.gov.my