BERLIN: The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture Malaysia through its agency Tourism Malaysia is participating once again in the World’s Leading Travel Trade Show, Internationale Tourismus-Borse (ITB) Berlin, taking place today until Thursday, 9 March 2023. The three-day event is held at Berlin ExpoCentre City with the participation of 125 countries from around the world. This year marks the 50th participation of Tourism Malaysia since it first joined in 1972.
This year’s Malaysia delegation to ITB Berlin consists of 7 state tourism boards, 15 tour operators, 15 hotels and resorts, and 3 tourism-related services. There are a total of 68 participants representing 40 organisations joined under the Tourism Malaysia Pavillion. The Malaysia delegation is led by the Hon. Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture of Malaysia, Dato Sri Tiong King Sing who is accompanied by Dato’ Zainuddin Abd Wahab, Director General of Tourism Malaysia, and Dato’ Dr. Ammar Abd Ghapar, Senior Director of Tourism Malaysia’s International Promotion Division (Americas/Europe/Oceania).
Dato Sri Tiong King Sing who officiated the Malaysia Pavilion today, said, “ITB continues to be one of the best platforms for Malaysian tourism players to meet up with German and European outbound agents and airlines, where we get to share the latest information on Malaysia’s tourism products and new tourist attractions in our effort to further revive the tourism industry.” He also emphasised Malaysia’s unique ecotourism destinations and community-based tourism to be of high interest to the European market.
In conjunction with ITB Berlin 2023, a new video advertisement from Tourism Malaysia’s latest campaign “Soul of Malaysia” was launched together with its new release of 3 main brochures namely Malaysia Travel Guide, Nature & Adventure, and Island & Beaches in the German language. Four state tourism boards present also launched their new products and campaign namely Gombak Hulu Langat Geopark by Tourism Selangor, LangkawiGreen Geopark Package by Langkawi Development Authority (LADA), Sabah Tourism Board´s new destination branding, Feel Sabah, and Visit Melaka Year 2024 by Melaka Tourism.
Since its full reopening of international borders, Malaysia has recorded a total of 10,070,964 (10.07 million) tourist arrivals and RM28.2 billion (Euro 6.1 billion) in tourist receipts in 2022, surpassing its initial target of 9.2 million international tourist arrivals. In 2023, Malaysia is targeting to welcome 16.1 million international tourist arrivals and generate RM49.2 billion (Euro 10.5 billion) in tourist receipts.
Particularly in December 2022, Malaysia recorded 10,764 German tourist arrivals, which translates to a significant growth of 31.3% as compared to 8,197 arrivals back in December 2019. In total, Malaysia welcomed 57,780 German tourist arrivals in 2022, in comparison to 130,221 arrivals in 2019. With enhanced air connectivity and promotional efforts in 2023, Tourism Malaysia is optimistic to witness exponential growth from the German market.
