VM2007 campaign likely cause of 300% rise, says group

Special promotion: Teh Meng Wah and his girlfriend Irene Selok spinning a wheel to see what gift they will receive for buying a travel package at the Langkawi Tourism Action Council booth during the last day of the travel fair at Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

KUALA LUMPUR: Domestic travelling has soared up to 300% this year compared with last year's meagre 20%.

Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (Matta) deputy president Datuk Mohd Khalid Harun said the big increase was most probably due to this year being Visit Malaysia 2007.

He said the overwhelming crowd at the Matta fair compared with the previous years was a testimony to the highly increased percentage.

“Most of the exhibitors selling domestic tours exceeded their targets.

“Many of the exhibitors are offering value-added packages that are really interesting,” he said when met on the last day of the fair at the Putra World Trade Centre here yesterday.

He said Matta hoped to reach the target of 90,000 visitors to the fair, and they expected to hit RM100mil in sales revenue, compared with about RM80mil last year.

He said some 70,000 Matta fair bags reserved for the visitors had all been snapped up.

Langkawi Tourism Action Council promotions and marketing manager Suziana W. Othman said all the 18 participants grouped under the council were closing good sales daily.

“This is also the first time ever Langkawi is making more than RM1mil in sales for the fair,” she said.

A hotel operator under the Johor Tourism Action Council said most of them were reaching their sales target and some had even exceeded their targets.

Desaru Resort assistant director for sales Justin Toh said that although Johor was recently affected by floods, visitors at the fair were still attracted to tour packages to the state.

Matta fair freak Tee Meng Wah, 34, said that for the past four years he would try hard not to miss the fair, and during each visit he would buy a local destination package.

“There was only once that I could not make it to the fair and I felt so disappointed, as the fair is one place to get good bargains,” he added.

Source : STAR
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