Malaysia Wins Best Asean Marketing And Promotional Campaign

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 30 (Bernama) -- Malaysia was awarded the Best ASEAN Marketing and Promotional Campaign at the 34th ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) which was held at the Myanmar International Convention Centre recently. Tourism and Culture Minsitry secretary-general Ong Hong Peng received the award from Myanmar Hotels and Tourism Minister U Htay Aung at the opening ceremony of ATF on Monday, said a statement from Tourism Malaysia, here Thursday. ATF is a cooperative regional effort to promote the ASEAN region as a single tourism destination where Asian hospitality and cultural diversity are at its best while the forum is held yearly and is rotated among the member states. Malaysia last year launched its Visit Malaysia Year which recorded 22.9 million tourists for the first 10 months. Meanwhile, the promotion of the country continues this year with the Malaysia Year of Festivals (MyFEST) campaign themed "Endless Celebrations", where a total of 50 cultural events and festivities celebrated by Malaysians have been identified as key cultural attractions for the promotion. MyFEST is expected to significantly boost arrivals of tourists to Malaysia, with targets of 29.4 million tourist arrivals and US$24.53 billion (RM89 billion) in tourist receipts this year. It is also a key driver towards achieving the country's target of 36 million tourist arrivals and US$46.31 billion (RM168 billion) in receipts by 2020, as outlined in the Tourism National Key Economic Area (NKEA). -- BERNAMA