Wednesday, 16 September 2015

Malaysia tries to redress Singapore arrivals decline


A drop in arrivals from Singapore to Malaysia in the first quarter of 2015 has sent tourism authorities scurrying to the neighbouring country to restore marketshare.

Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, Malaysia’s minister of tourism and culture, met Singapore’s top travel agency heads and media last week in efforts to boost tourist arrivals from the market.

Malaysia received 13.9 million arrivals from Singapore last year, a 5.7 per cent growth from 2013, but saw an 8.6 per cent drop in the first three months of 2015 compared to the same period in 2014.

Nazri said: “We need to carry out various initiatives to drive growth from Singapore for the remaining months. We are intensifying our efforts here through joint promotions and tactical campaigns.”

Measures would include partnerships with the trade at the Travel Malaysia Fair 2015, joint collaborations with Malindo Air, a Durian Fiesta initiative, the development of special diving packages, the promotion of Malaysia as a music and entertainment hub, as well as tactical campaigns in the market, he shared.

The minister also flagged the introduction of the daily train shuttle service by KTM Berhad between JB Sentral, Malaysia, and Woodlands, Singapore. The service operates seven times a day from Singapore to Malaysia.

He added: “This service provides great convenience to Singapore tourists and complements the existing connectivity that our two destinations currently enjoy. With the support from the airlines industry, we now have 489 flight frequencies per week with 73,314 seating capacity.”

He also publicised the Malaysia Year of Festivals (MyFest) 2015 and urged local travel agencies to work closer with their Malaysian counterparts to develop more creative and innovative holiday packages to the country.
-TTG Asia.

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