Malaysia Major Events Target Over 100,000 International Tourists Next Year

By Haslinda Zainal KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 8 (Bernama) -- Malaysia Major Events, a division of Malaysia Convention and Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB) and an agency of the Tourism Ministry, is targeting to attract more than 100,000 international tourists visiting this country through various events scheduled next year. Its general manager, Tony Nagamaiah said he was optimistic the number could be achieved as many interesting major events such as international concerts, sporting and musical events as well as festivals would be held next year in conjunction with Malaysia's Year Of Festivals. "This year, we are supporting more than 50 events and brought in approximately 100,000 international tourists while for next year, we secured 60 events and our target is more than 100,000 people," he told Bernama in an interview here. He said interesting events that had been listed for next year's schedule included 'Thriller Live!', a musical extravaganza from West End London, which would be showcased only in Malaysia for this region in March at Indoor Stadium Putra Bukit Jalil here. This event alone was expected to attract more than 10,000 tourists, especially Michael Jackson's die-hard fans, and generate more than US$14.30 million (RM50 million) in revenue. "Other than that, we will be hosting the International Olympic Council Meeting where all the federation presidentS will gather (in this meeting). We are also looking at some concerts such as Cold Play and Foo Fighters," he said. Nagamaiah said Malaysia Major Events, which was set up in 2011, was aimed to place Malaysia on the world map as the event venue of choice that could create and generate an impact to the country's economy. "We want to showcase Malaysia as a country full of excitement, fun and welcome as many tourists to see what the country has to offer in terms of tourism products and development. "This is basically giving back to the economy where hotel rooms, airlines and taxi drivers will be fully booked and travel agents will make money," he said, adding that all these would generate the economic engine and bring the revenue or return on investment (ROI) immediately. Nagamaiah said the agency provided a shared platform with the public and private sectors and acted as a vital link in facilitating and promoting major events. "We don't organise events, but we work together with the local promoter. If they have ideas, they will come, share with us and provide a proposal, then we will evaluate the ideas. If the proposal is good enough and have good economic and tourism impact, we will work with them," he said. He said the agency would provide a start-up fund to the local promoter of between US$143,067 (RM500,000) to US$858,407 (RM3 million) depending on the strength of their proposal for them to start the project rolling. "But, they still need to go for other sponsors and also make money from ticket sales and (charge) participants' fee for them to run a successful and profitable event," he said. Besides international events, he said, they also supported home grown events that had been initiated and staged within Malaysia by a local or national organisation. "We do support and help our local events, we also want to elevate them to the next level to attract as many tourists from the region to this country," he said. --BERNAMA