Malaysia has once again made headlines by winning the much-coveted Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Grand Award in the heritage category and two other prestigious PATA Gold Awards in the marketing media and education & training categories.

Tourism Malaysia clinched the Gold Award in the Marketing Media – Travel Advertisement Print Media category for its ‘Malaysia: Truly Asia – Truly More with Every Visit. It Must Be Malaysia.’ campaign. The new campaign is an evolution from the original Malaysia Truly Asia concept, targeted especially to attract repeat visitors to Malaysia and offering more experiences and more value with every visit.

The Director General of Tourism Malaysia, Dato’ Mirza Mohammad Taiyab, received the award on behalf of Tourism Malaysia from the Director of Macau Government Tourist Office, Mr. Joao Manuel Costa Antunes and the Chief Executive Officer of PATA, Mr. Greg Duffell on 25 September 2009 in Hangzhou, China.

At the award ceremony, the judging panels described the winning campaign as an excellent marketing campaign which managed to highlight the aspect of the different regions. “Beautiful photography creates a real desire to be there”, added the judges.

Meanwhile, in the Environmental Education Programme category, the Frangipani Langkawi Resort & Spa, Malaysia, won a Gold Award for their on-site Environmental Education programme.

The Grand Award winner in the heritage category, the Temple Tree, Langkawi, is a concept hotel that promotes a truly Malaysian holiday experience. It houses several restored and unique antique homes that represent various cultural elements in Malaysia comprising the Malay, Chinese, Indian, Eurasian and Arab. Profits from the resort also help to fund LASSie (Langkawi Animal Shelter and Sanctuary Foundation). The Temple Tree is a worthy winner as it conserves important heritage elements whilst assisting the foundation to carry out its ideals of receiving, rehabilitating and caring for neglected and abused cats and dogs.

A total of 23 Gold Awards were presented to the winning entries in the Marketing Media (nine sub-groups) and Travel Journalism (four sub-groups) categories, in addition to four Grand Awards for outstanding entries in the categories of Environment, Education & Training, Heritage & Culture and Marketing Campaign. This year’s PATA Gold Awards programme attracted a total of 236 entries from 120 organisations worldwide.               

BACKGROUNDER

Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is the region’s leading travel trade association, based in Bangkok.  Its goal is to help members develop and increase business opportunities through a wide array of products, such as events, market intelligence, communications, networking and industry-wide recognition and exposure through the PATA brand.
 
The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Gold Awards recognise exceptional achievement in a variety of endeavours, bringing acclaim to the best that the Asia Pacific’s travel industry has to offer. This year, the awards recognise the achievements of 24 separate organisations and individuals. Entries were judged by travel industry experts.

For more information, visit the website : www.pata.org

Issued by: Communications & Publicity Division, Tourism Malaysia
Date: 28 September 2009
Tel: +603 2615 8188; Fax: +603 2615 8477
For more information, e-mail: sitirahmah@tourism.gov.my
Website: www.tourismmalaysia