DUBAI/GENTING HIGHLANDS: Tourism Malaysia organised a Familiarisation Trip Programme for a group from Indonesia in a bid to promote Malaysia as a safe holiday destination concerning the reopening of the country’s borders starting 1st April 2022.
A total of 9 participants, comprising 5 travel agents and 4 media from the Indonesian market of Jakarta and Medan, were invited for an eight-day seven-night (8D7N) stay in Langkawi and Genting Highlands from 4 to 11 March 2022.
The participants explored Langkawi through a mangrove tour in Kubang Badak, Langkawi Skycab ride – the world’s steepest cable car, and explored the largest interactive 3D museum in Malaysia at 3D Art Langkawi. They also attended a dinner hosted by the Malaysian Inbound Tourism Association (MITA) Kedah Chapter at Goldsands Hotel.
This tour programme was also a join collaboration with Resort World Genting, where participants were brought to experience Genting SkyWorlds, Genting Highlands’ newest attraction, followed by the Skytropolis Indoor Theme Park, and Awana Skyway, a gondola lift system which is 3.4-kilometre long and can transport 1,600 people per hour, as well as an overnight stay at Resort World Awana Hotel.
This programme is an initiative of Tourism Malaysia that aims to showcase Malaysia as an exciting and value-for-money destination as well as to spark interest among the travel agents to develop attractive packages for the Indonesian market.
Since 15 November 2021, international tourism has resumed in Langkawi under the international travel bubble initiative as part of the greater effort to revive the island’ economy brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 165 tourists from Indonesia has participated in this programme. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, a total of 3.6 million Indonesian tourists visited Malaysia in 2019.
Dato’ Hj. Zainuddin Abdul Wahab, Director-General of Tourism Malaysia said, “We welcome fully-vaccinated Indonesian travellers to Malaysia after nearly two years of border closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Tourism Malaysia hopes that the implementation of such programme will help to stimulate and revitalise Malaysia’s tourism industry as well as to raise the confidence level of Indonesian tourists to choose Malaysia as their preferred holiday destination.
