Tourism Malaysia To Re-open Its Istanbul Office

The Honourable Dato’ Sri Dr. Ng Yen Yen, Minister of Tourism, Malaysia, announced the re-opening of the Tourism Malaysia office in Istanbul during her four-day sales mission to Turkey recently. The working visit (12-16 November 2011) to Turkey was organised by Tourism Malaysia in a bid to increase the number of tourists from this market.

 

The Minister made the announcement after conducting a dialogue session with the Mayor of Metropolitan Municipality Istanbul, Dr. Kadir Tophas on 14 November. During the talks, Dato’ Sri Dr. Ng said that Malaysia plans to attract more tourists from Turkey. “As a Muslim country with a multi-cultural population, I believe Malaysia will be an attractive place for the Turkish people to visit,” she said. “I would also like to invite businessmen from Turkey to invest in our service sectors especially now that our government policy allows foreign investors a 100% foreign equity ownership,” she added. “Turkey has been experiencing rapid growth in its economy in recent years, and we hope to see more tourists from Turkey signing up for the luxury tourism packages, some of which include great shopping experiences, spa treatments, as well as customised tourism packages”, said Ng. 

The Tourism Minister expressed hope that the Turkish Airlines would have a direct flight to Kuala Lumpur to enable more tourists from Turkey to visit Malaysia. “Currently, Malaysia Airlines provides three direct flights a week from Kuala Lumpur to Istanbul but I would like to see more direct flights including chartered ones with either Turkish Airlines or Malaysia Airlines which will give more options in terms of air accessibility for people of both countries,”  she said.

While in Turkey, the Minister met with the Governor and Mayor from Izmir and Istanbul, the President of TURSAB (Association of Turkish Travel Agencies),and the President of Turkish Airlines at the Tourism Seminar organised by Tourism Malaysia on 14 and 15 November respectively. Dato’ Sri Dr. Ng Yen Yen took the opportunity to update them on new tourism 

developments and products in Malaysia, in an effort to strengthen the presence of Malaysia in Turkey.

She also invited the Turkish government to participate in the Malaysia International Tourism Exchange (MITE) in May next year. The Tourism Minister also had meetings with airlines, tour operators, travel agents and travel trade media in the cities that she visited. 

-Tourism Malaysia.