Malaysia Woos New Market In Cambodia For Higher Tourist Arrival

KUALA LUMPUR, March 4 (Bernama) -- Some 75,000 Cambodian tourists visited Malaysia last year, a spike of about 1.6 per cent in their arrival during the same period in 2014. Nevertheless, Tourism Malaysia Promotion Board deputy director-general Azizan Noordin said Malaysia would continue to woo new markets in Cambodia for higher tourist arrival, which is expected to increase to 80,000 this year. "For the past few years, Tourism Malaysia has embarked on promotional activities in Cambodia through roadshows and fairs, especially during ASEAN-related events such as Youth Cultural Exchange Festival, in collaboration with MITA (Malaysia Inbound Tourism Association). "This shows that our ongoing efforts in capturing the ASEAN countries market, expecially Cambodia have reaped good results," he told reporters after the MITA-Cambodian Business Networking Session here Friday. Azizan said 44 weekly direct flights to Cambodia, which covered Phnom Penh and Siem Reap were available to encourage Cambodian tourist visit to Malaysia. MITA deputy president Uzaidi Udanis said for the first time, MITA was organising a business networking session for the Cambodian market, comprising 20 top Cambodian travel agents, as well as 20 local travel agents. "MITA with Cambodia Association Travel Agents, Pacific Asia Travel Association (Cambodian chapter), Swiss Garden Groups and local private sectors combine and joint effort in promoting Malaysia to be the number one holiday destination among Cambodians. "This half-day session will also open up new opportunities for Malaysian tourism players to meet up and discuss new business deals aimed at generating new tourist arrivals in Malaysia," he said. He said 20 delegates from the top Cambodian travel agents were brought to several states since Tuesday, to explore new tourism products such as in Johor, Melaka and Kuala Lumpur. Meanwhile, Uzaidi said in conjunction with the implementation of electronic visa and electronic travel registration and information, MITA, through Malaysian Tourism Council affiliate members had brought in 10,000 Chinese tourists to visit Malaysia this week. "Each Chinese tourist will spend at least US$1,708 (RM7,000) during the five-day trip which will directly benefit the travel suppliers, restaurants and shopping centres," he said. He said with the increasing spending power of the Chinese tourist, Malaysian entrepreneurs, especially small and medium enterprises (SME) should be encouraged to venture and promote local products. "Local products like coffee, bird nest, Tongkat Ali and Kacip Fatimah are among products which are popular in China and the SME entrepreneurs can penetrate the big China market effectively." --BERNAMA