Oct 30, 2013
TOURISM MALAYSIA REOPENS ITS ISTANBUL OFFICE IN LIGHT OF VISIT MALAYSIA YEAR 2014
PUTRAJAYA, 30 OCTOBER, 2013 – Minister of Tourism and Culture, Dato' Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, officiated the re-opening of Tourism Malaysia’s office in Istanbul today. He is on a nine-day working visit to Istanbul and Bucharest before attending the World Travel Market 2013 on 4 November in London.
Dato’ Seri Nazri officiated the re-opening of Tourism Malaysia’s Istanbul office at the Harmanci Giz Plaza, this morning, before attending the Visit Malaysia Year 2014 (VMY) Evening to promote the VMY 2014 campaign to Turkish tour operators and media.
“The Istanbul office, last operational in 2009, will oversee the Turkish, Armenian, Romanian, Azerbaijani, and Bulgarian tourist markets to Malaysia,” he said.
He said the move is expected to increase tourist arrivals from Turkey, by tapping into the growing outbound market, which showed a 3% growth last year, with a forecasted 40 million departures by 2017.
“This year, Tourism Malaysia estimates that a total of 10,300 Turkish tourists will be visiting Malaysia, an increase from last year’s figures of 9,909. The figure is expected to increase to 11,000 tourists next year, during the VMY 2014 campaign,” he added.
Currently, there are no visa requirements between Turkey and Malaysia, and air accessibility has improved with 7,238 weekly flights servicing the Istanbul – Kuala Lumpur route, through direct and indirect flights on Turkish Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, KLM, Air France and Qatar Airways.
Dato’ Seri Mohamed Nazri continues his working visit to Bucharest, Romania where he will meet with Embassy officials, tour operators, as well as pay a courtesy call on the Romanian Tourism Minister, Elena Udrea, before arriving in London on 2 November for the World Travel Market 2013.
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.tourismmalaysia.gov.my/
MALAYSIA TOURISM PROMOTION BOARD OR TOURISM MALAYSIA is an agency under the Ministry of Tourism & Culture, Malaysia. While the Ministry of Tourism & Culture implements tourism policies, conducts studies and offers incentives for industry players, Tourism Malaysia focuses on the specific task of promoting Malaysia at the domestic and international level. Driven by its aspiration to promote Malaysia as a destination of excellence in this region, Tourism Malaysia has grown by leaps and bounds since its inception and has emerged as a major player in the nation’s socio-economic landscape. In 2012, Malaysia registered 25 million tourist arrivals and RM60.6 billion in tourist receipts.
In 2014, Malaysia will celebrate its fourth VISIT MALAYSIA YEAR (VMY) with the theme “Celebrating 1Malaysia Truly Asia”. The VMY 2014 promotional campaign has started this year with a series of year-long special events and activities leading to VMY 2014. It will contribute to the Government’s target to receive 36 million tourist arrivals and RM168 billion in receipts by 2020, as outlined in the Malaysia Tourism Transformation Plan (MTTP) 2020.
Press contact:
Media Relations Unit:
Mr. Razaidi Abd Rahim, Senior Asst. Director, Communications & Publicity Division
Email: razaidi@tourism.gov.my
Editorial Unit:
Ms. Anis Rozalina Ramli, Editor, Communications & Publicity Division
Email: anisramli@tourism.gov.my
