Malaysia was hounoured with the ‘Best Travel and Leisure Destination (Short-Haul)’ award at the 6th TravelWeekly (China) Travel and Meeting Industry Awards 2009 held at the Raffles Beijing Hotel on 7 September.

The annual TravelWeekly (China) Travel and Meeting Industry Awards recognises outstanding achievements and contributions to tourism by travel industry players in the Asia Pacific. Almost 800,000 votes were cast by TravelWeekly China readers both online and magazine as well as industry leaders in all categories.

The online voting contest which began from 26 May and ended on 20 July 2009 witnessed a total of 46 awards were being nominated this year. 

The ‘Best Destination’ was judged in terms of superior product and excellent service, outstanding efforts and professionalism in catering to the needs of the Chinese travellers. Malaysia won the ‘Best Travel & Leisure Destination (Short- Haul)’ with 334 votes, followed by Hokaido, Japan (115 votes) and Cebu & Boracay, Philippines (56 votes).

Tourist Arrivals

Malaysia recorded a total of 2,030,337 foreign tourists in August 2009, an increase of 10.4%, compared to the same month in 2008. Cumulatively, arrivals recorded from January to August 2009 were 15,380,505 tourists, representing an increase of 4.4% compared to 14,730,437 tourists for the same period in 2008.

In terms of the tourist arrivals from China (including Hong Kong and Macau), a total of 660,940 Chinese tourists visited Malaysia from January to August 2009. This is an increase of 0.2% compared to the same period in 2008. Last year, China ranked fifth in tourist arrivals to Malaysia where a total of 949,864 tourist arrivals from China were recorded, registering an increase of 20.3%, compared to 789,568 Chinese tourists in 2007.

Issued by: Communications & Publicity Division, Tourism Malaysia
Date: 17 September 2009
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