Promotions Galore For Tourism Malaysia

Charmaine Fernz - Mumbai

Madhu Saliankar

Call it a strategic marketing tool or innovation; Tourism Malaysia always has something new to lure its Indian clientele, be it shopping festivals, food festivals, events et al. In a recent development and the first of its kind, Tourism Malaysia along with Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) recently announced the launch of a joint package in association with Malaysia Airlines. This would be for the first time in India that two National Tourist Offices (NTO's) have joined hands to promote their respective destinations.

The package available on Malaysia Airlines would cost Rs 29,999 for six days five nights. The package would include three nights in Kuala Lumpur and two nights in Hong Kong and would include economy airfare, accommodation on twin sharing in four-star hotel with breakfast and airport transfers, half-day site seeing tour in Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong.

Explains Madhu Saliankar, marketing manager, Tourism Malaysia, "The package has been launched in association with certain travel agents throughout India ie 10 in Mumbai, two in Gujarat, one in Nagpur, one in Indore, three in Pune, 12 in Delhi and Chandigarh and would be valid all over India till September 15, 2004. Subsequently, the launch of this package has been perfectly timed for both Malaysia and Hong Kong as both cities are gearing up for their respective shopping festivals."

Commenting further, Roslan Abdullah, director, Tourism Malaysia, said, "This initiative is a natural extension of our strategy to launch competitive packages, enhance seat availability and bring variety for the travellers. Tourism Malaysia has taken yet another step to develop the concept of 'Twin Destination Marketing' and thereby enhancing cooperation to develop regional tourism in the South East Asia sector. On the whole, we are expecting an annual growth between 20 - 25 per cent in arrivals from India for the year 2004."

Apart from the above-mentioned launch, Tourism Malaysia has a slew of promotions lined up for the coming months. Says Saliankar, "This is not all. We are in the process of planning a five-city sales mission from India (Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi) to Malaysia. Plans are also afoot for a promotion with Star Cruises that would be launched in August. And the latest on the block is the Tourism Malaysia promotion along with SOTC and HP, which is a seven-city campaign. Beginning August 15, 2004, this scratch card promotion with HP would be conducted in seven cities namely Pune, Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad."