Tourism Malaysia received the "Best Booth for National Tourism Organisation (NTO)" award at the 8th Thailand International Travel Fair 2011 in Bangkok recently.

Mr. Iskandar Mirza Mohd Yusof, Director of Tourism Malaysia in Thailand, was on hand to receive the award from Thailand Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Trairong Suwankeeree.

The Malaysian booth featured an ‘open space' concept and the architectural design of the Sultan Abdul Samad building in Kuala Lumpur, where visitors could meet with travel agents to enquire about travel packages to Malaysia.

Ten travel agents from Bangkok were invited to promote their Malaysia packages at the booth. Most of the packages were created for the Songkhran and school holiday period in April 2011. A total of THB3,000,000 (roughly RM300,000) of tour packages to Malaysia were sold by the participating travel agents. This amount excludes those that have only paid the deposit and will proceed with bookings later.

In addition, there were also cultural performances at the main stage and teh tarik demonstration at the booth. The cultural troupe performed twice daily showcasing the multi-racial culture of Malaysia,

The travel fair, held from 24 to 27 February at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center saw the participation of 13 other countries, namely:

• Tourism Authority of Thailand
• Munich Tourism
• Macau Government Tourists Office
• Korea Tourism Organization
• New Zealand Tourism
• ChongQing New Century
• Hong Kong Tourism
• Nepal Tourism Board
• Japan National Tourism Organization
• Tourism Taiwan
• Destina Australia
• Greek
• Jungfrau Railways
The Thai International Travel Fair was organised by Thai Travel Agents Association (TTAA) and is one of the leading travel fairs in the country. In 2010, the fair drew more than 800,000 visitors with as many as 1,125 booths in exhibition, while this year, more than 900,000 showed up to support the event.

Thailand is among the top five tourist generating markets for Malaysia. Last year, Malaysia received 1,458,678 Thai tourists out of a total of 24,577,196 tourists, representing a 0.6 percent growth from arrivals in 2009.

Issued by: Communications & Publicity Division, Tourism Malaysia
Date: 9 March 2011
Tel: +603 26158188; Email: khairie@tourism.gov.my
Website: www.tourismmalaysia.gov.my