Daily Times

Tourism Malaysia will participate in the PTM 2019 from October 8-10, 2019 in Karachi Expo Centre to welcome more tourists from Pakistan by highlighting VM2020 campaign.

This year, a total of 18 organisations from Malaysia will participate in PTM including hotels and resorts, travel agencies, product operators and tourism associations. Tourism Malaysia also take this opportunity to launch Visit Malaysia 2020 in Pakistan. The tourist arrival target from Pakistan during the campaign will be 81,000 tourists.

Commenting on the bilateral relationships between Malaysia and Pakistan, Khairul Nazran Abd Rahman – Consul General at the Consulate General of Malaysia in Karachi said, “Although the major cornerstone of our relations is trade and investment, Malaysia remains committed to deepen the breadth and depth of our relations in the tourism front with Pakistan. Our active participation in the annual Pakistan Travel Mart speaks volume of our aspiration towards this endeavour.”

Tourism Malaysia Director in Dubai Shahrin Mokhtar said, “With the support of our industry partners, our goal was to bring exposure and create awareness on Malaysia to these markets, resulting in the increase of tourist flow from Pakistan to Malaysia. Pakistan Travel Mart is an excellent platform to promote the Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign in Pakistan.”

Malaysia recorded 74,458 tourist arrivals from Pakistan from in 2018, a growth of 39.3% compared to 2017. Moreover, tourist arrivals between January to July 2019 is 55,240, an increase of 26.0% compared to the same period last year.

Tourism Malaysia Director in Dubai Shahrin Mokhtar said, ‘With the support of our industry partners, our goal was to bring exposure and create awareness on Malaysia to these markets, resulting in the increase of tourist flow from Pakistan to Malaysia. Pakistan Travel Mart is an excellent platform to promote the Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign in Pakistan’

Latest attractions in Malaysia include Genting Highlands, which has been refreshed with a new indoor theme park, Skytropolis, and shopping opportunities at Genting Highlands Premium Outlets and Sky Avenue Mall; Melaka, which is located two and a half hours drive from Kuala Lumpur and offers a variety of attractions for Pakistani tourists interested to learn Malaysia’s rich history; Johor Bahru, a family destination renowned as the country’s new theme park hub and Kota Kinabalu in Sabah, which offers exceptional attractions for nature lovers and soft adventurers.

Speaking of Malaysia’s presence, Tourism Malaysia, Dubai and Consulate General of Malaysia, Karachi have been working with the various quarters in expanding the cooperative activities in the tourism front. Certainly, Malaysia looks forward to increase and enhanced our countries relationship to greater height for the benefit and interest of our two nations.

In 2019, Malaysia was yet again named the top Muslim Travel Destination 2019 by Mastercard and Crescent Ratings 2019 Global Muslim Travel Index. Malaysia also enjoys an outstanding international reputation as a healthcare and wellness destination, having been consistently recognised in industry programmes including the Medical Travel Journal (IMTJ) Medical Travel Awards. Moreover, Kuala Lumpur was ranked 6thin the list of most visited cities in 2018 based on the Mastercard Global Destination Cities Index 2019 report.

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.

VM2020 is the fifth Visit Malaysia campaign with the previous four campaigns charting significant increases in tourist arrivals. During the VM2020 Campaign, Malaysia targets to achieve 30 million international tourist arrivals and RM 100 billion tourist receipts by end of 2020.