Reconnecting Malaysia with North American Travel Advisors
Malaysia is taking another initiative in the North American market, which includes Canada, to boost inbound tourism following its international border reopening.
Tourism Malaysia Los Angeles Office has brought seven (7) travel advisors on a familiarisation (FAM) trip to Malaysia from 5 to 14 October 2022 led by Mr Akbal Setia, the Vice President of Tourism Malaysia for the Americas. Participants are given the chance to visit several destinations in Peninsular Malaysia including Kuala Lumpur, Cameron Highlands, Perak, and Penang, where they had the opportunity to gain first-hand experience with high-end products as well as cultural experiences in addition to a business-to-business (B2B) programme.
Included in the program is a session with the Malaysian Association of Tour & Travel Agents (MATTA) where the travel advisors can meet up with Malaysian industry stakeholders and thus support the package development essence to capture high-end tourists from the USA and Canada.
Before the pandemic, Malaysia had welcomed 269,928 visitors from the USA and 87,568 from Canada in 2019, an increase of 6.5% and 3.4% from 2018 respectively. Tourism Malaysia hopes that this programme will motivate its American and Canadian industry friends to promote Malaysia as a top-of-mind holiday destination with a diversity of attractions, as well as a value-for-money destination which converts numbers of tourists from the North American market.
According to Mr Akbal, “We are very excited to showcase Malaysia’s unique experience to our participants and thus to welcome more international travellers to our fascinating country. With this FAM programme, we hope to inspire and motivate our travel trade partners to promote and sell Malaysia with confidence and succeed in the USA and Canada.”
Beginning 1 August 2022, Malaysia has allowed all travellers to enter Malaysia regardless of their COVID-19 vaccination status, without requirements to undergo quarantine or pre-departure and on-arrival COVID-19 tests. Travel insurance is also not a prerequisite for foreigners entering Malaysia, and inbound travellers no longer need to fill in the Traveler’s Card on the country’s contact tracing app, MySejahtera.
For the latest standard operating procedures (SOP) information, please visit Tourism Malaysia’s website at https://malaysia.travel/travel-alert or MySafeTravel portal at https://mysafetravel.gov.my/.