32 Aussie, Kiwi Travel-trade Managers For Conference In Malaysia

MELBOURNE, March 10 (Bernama) -- Twenty-three senior managers from Australia and New Zealand will attend Tourism Malaysia's second annual travel-trade product conference in Malaysia this month. They will meet at the Shangri-La Hotel in Kuala Lumpur on March 19 and at Tanjung Aru in Kota Kinabalu on March 22 to meet hoteliers and tour operators from throughout Malaysia to find out what Malaysia has to offer to boost business tourism. The event will introduce accommodation contractors from Australia and New Zealand wholesale travel companies to new, alternative and updated hotels in Malaysia, said Shahrin Mokhtar, Tourism Malaysia Sydney director.

The participants will include people directly contracting hotels for the large Australasian markets, including travel companies such as Flight Centre, Creative Holidays and Stella Travel, said Shahrin in a statement. He said more than 30 Peninsular Malaysia hoteliers would attend the business session at Shangri-La Hotel and about 50 from Sabah and Sarawak at the Kota Kinabalu session. The editor of Australia and New Zealand's most widely-read industry publication "eTravel Blackboard" will also attend the conference to file on-the-spot reports for its daily trade e-newsletter. "Australia and New Zealand are important markets for Malaysian tourism, with Australia always in the top 10 for tourist arrivals," said Shahrin.

Despite the global financial crisis last year, 596,386 Australian and New Zealanders visited Malaysia, a 23.4 per cent growth compared with 2008, he said. "They spent RM2.3 billion in Malaysia, an increase of 24.9 per cent compared with 2008".