NEW DELHI, 7 JAN 2020: The Hon. Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mr. Muhammad Bakhtiar bin Wan Chik, presented 37 awards at tonight’s Appreciation Awards to partners of Tourism Malaysia in India for their strong and continuous support towards the growth and development of the Malaysian tourism industry.

The Appreciation Night, held at The Shangri-La on the eve of SATTE (South Asia Travel & Tourism Exchange), was attended by presidents of the tourism associations – TAAI, TAFI and OTOAI, and representatives from major travel agencies, tour operators, online travel agencies, airlines, media, wedding planners, MICE curators along with 40 participants from Malaysia, comprising a mix of DMCs, hotels, airlines, attractions and suppliers.

The Division Director of International Promotion (Asia/Africa) Mr Mohamad Taib Ibrahim and other Malaysian dignitaries were also present to show their appreciation to India’s tourism industry fraternity.

Tourism Malaysia also took the opportunity to update the India travel trade members of Malaysia’s tourism developments and launch the new Visit Malaysia 2020 promotional video called Breathtaking Malaysia.

The Deputy Minister thanked all the stakeholders who played a crucial role in driving arrivals to Malaysia in 2019. “India has always been a very important tourist source market for Malaysia. From January to September 2019, Indian arrivals to Malaysia grew by 23.2% year on year. This put India in sixth place in terms of arrivals to Malaysia,” he said.

“Tourism Malaysia, in its commitment to develop India as a stronger tourist source market, got its biggest ever contingent of participants for SATTE, comprising a total of 40 participants with13 travel agents, 14 hotels and resorts, seven product owners, three airlines, two state agencies and one Online Travel Agent (OTA)” he added.

The Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign is targeted at achieve 30 million tourist arrivals overall with 1 million arrivals from India.

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, Arts & 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 scene. In 2018, Malaysia registered 25.8 million tourist arrivals and RM84.1 billion tourist receipts, placing it among the major tourism destinations of the world.

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Media Unit
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