KOTA KINABALU, 29 JUNE 2019 – Tourism Malaysia is utilizing digital marketing in promoting the Visit Malaysia 2020 (VM 2020) campaign, said the Director General of Tourism Malaysia, Datuk Musa Yusof today at the Kupi Kupi with Media programme.

“The campaign’s focus is on digital marketing through a dedicated VM 2020 website, the use of hashtags for VisitMalaysia2020, VM2020 and MalaysiaTrulyAsia,” he added.

He explained that Tourism Malaysia was leveraging on its strong presence in social media which, as at 20 June 2019, had 3.3 million followers on Facebook, 73,000 followers on Instagram, 422,489 followers on Twitter and 45.6 million views on YouTube.

In addition to this, its VM 2020 promotional efforts were also taking off via the Tourism Malaysia Mega Familiarisation programme where international media practitioners, including social media influencers, and travel agents are invited to get a first-hand experience of Malaysia. Since the beginning of the year, a total of 86 international participants had taken part in four Mega Familiarisation programmes. Another three programmes are in the pipeline within the next few months, with an anticipated 90 participants.

Datuk Musa Yusof said that the Mega Familiarisation programme was one of the most effective marketing strategies undertaken by Tourism Malaysia. In fact, in 2018, a total of 80 participants had taken part from 10 countries, yielding a return on investment amounting to RM3.7 million in publicity value from the various articles, documentaries and social media publicity generated.

Through the power of social media marketing, one of the Mega Familiarisation participants at a recent event, Turkish photographer Rotasiz Seyyah, had gained more than 17,000 likes within two hours of posting about Malaysia on his Instagram.

Recognising the importance of digital marketing, Tourism Malaysia had also engaged with a group of more than 50 social media influencers from India attending the recent Digital Influencer Convention 2019 in Sabah. A competition was held for them to post about Malaysia on their social media platforms utilizing the hashtags VisitMalaysia2020, VM2020 and MalaysiaTrulyAsia.

Other promotional efforts for VM 2020 included the Partner Country titleship at ITB Berlin in March 2019, one of the most important travel trade events in Europe. In addition, Tourism Malaysia is working together with Malaysia Airports Berhad via the Joint International Development Tourism Programme (JITDP). The programme sees collaborations with international airlines and tour operators to increase flight connectivity to Malaysia.

The VM 2020 campaign logo will be launched by the Prime Minister of Malaysia on 22 July, while an official VM 2020 song will be revealed soon.

The Kupi Kupi with Media programme today was organised by Tourism Malaysia to call for media support in Sabah for promoting VM 2020. It was attended by some 40 media practitioners from Sabah.

Datuk Ahmad Shah Hussein Tambakau said, “I hope that the Sabah media will continue to support our tourism industry with positive coverage of our tourism, arts and culture as the industry has provided positive impact to the country in terms of socio-economic development.”

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 & 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.

For press information, contact:

Muadz Samat
Assistant Director, Corporate Communication Division
muadz@tourism.gov.my
Tel: +603 8891 8755