By Rafiq Vayani
KARACHI: As Melaka is blessed with various cultures, namely the Malay, Chinese, Indian, Baba & Nyonya, Portuguese, Chittes and so on, the Visit Melaka Year 2019 (VMY 2019) campaign seeks to showcase and celebrate Melaka’s bountiful and diverse cultures and festivities as a tourist attraction. The promotion of various local festivities and cultural elements will be further boost as tourism offerings in VMY 2019 campaign.
VMY 2019 is set to make historical Melaka the top-of-the-mind tourist destination, encouraging tourists especially tourists from Pakistan to stay longer in order to enjoy the festival offerings as well as it historical and man-made attractions. Themed “A Gateway to Historic Malaysia”, the year-long calender is packed with festivities of every genre; for instance cultural festivals, shopping extravanganzas, international acclaimed events, eco-tourism events, arts, music showcases, food promotion and other themed events. For the record, 53,454 tourists from Pakistan has visited Malaysia in year 2017 where 14,851 of them extended their visits to Melaka.
VMY 2019 campaign leverages on smart partnerships that nurtures stakeholders engagement, support and participation. The symbiosis enables Melaka’s tourism efforts to be competitive and to remain one of the prime contributors to the socio-economic development of the nation’s second smallest state, making it part of a state’s mission. It is envisaged that government agencies, the private sector, non-government agencies and industry players will come together and make the VMY 2019 campaign a success.
Melaka has been given the honour to participate in the 2nd Pakistan Travel Mart (PTM), commencing from 2nd – 4th October 2018 at Karachi Expo Centre. General Manager of Melaka Tourism Mr Zairi Suboh who led the Melaka delegation to take the opportunity to unveil the official logo of Visit Melaka Year 2019, a colourful portrayal of typical traditional Melaka wooden house adorned with colourful Nyonya tiles staircase during the said travel mart. This will be the second time that the said logo is being introduced in such an event. The inaugural event was held at Jakarta recently and was well received and a success.
The said event was jointly hosted by the Malaysian Embassy and the State of Melaka in a hotel located in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Next year is a crucial period for Melaka state’s tourism – they are the lead up to the much-anticipated Visit Malaysia 2020. By then, Melaka is expected to welcome some 20 million tourists.
The initiative not only aims to rally all industry players towards this common goal, but is a call to welcome tourists from all over the world especially Pakistan to experience Malaysia’s warm hospitality and diverse tourist attractions.
The Chief Minister of Melaka is confident of the success of the campaign, saying that Melaka’s tourism industry is growing stronger. He cited tourism investments in Melaka such as international hotel brands are being made within the next two years, amounting to close to more than 1,000 rooms.
In addition, new attractions are also being launched to provide tourists more choices of attractions such as Encore Melaka, a world-class, immersive theatre performance boasts innovative and stunning video projection mapping and multi-stage hydraulic sets, as well as advanced lighting and acoustic techniques. It is Asia’s largest theatre that seats more than 2,000 people on a one-of-a-kind 360-degree rotating audience platform. Adding further to attraction are the Menara Tamingsari and the Melaka River Cruise.
Acknowledging the importance of connectivity to facilitate travel, Chief Minister Adly Zahari said that its goverment is focusing on increasing accessibility to Melaka via various airline partnerships for scheduled and charter flights.
In the event, Tourism Melaka works with a network of Destination Management Company (DMC) Pakistan QadasFly Travel & Tourism which also operating in Malaysia to become the Prefered DMC Partner (Pakistan) who act as destination steward and helping Melaka to promotes more than 800 tourism products in this country. The symbolic of signing ceremony happening today at Malaysia booth in between Syed Ali Jilani from QadasFly and Mr Zairi Suboh, Tourism Melaka on behalf of State Government of Melaka.
