Thai Tourism Promotion in Penang and Kuala Lumpur

By Anthony Tan email: micemalaysiabeyond@gmail.com

The annual Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) tourism promotion mini Travel Mart road shows to Penang and Kuala Lumpur saw 35 sellers from 27 hoteliers, seven travel agents and one airline came to meet the Malaysia travel trade buyers.

The Thai tourism industry groups were representing tourism destinations from Pattaya, Bangkok, Phuket, Phangnga, Krabi, Surat Thani and Chiangmai to promote new tourism products and packages to the Malaysian travel agents and updating the travel writers as well.

The only airline that participated this time is Bangkok Airways as they are introducing a daily flight from Kuala Lumpur to Koh Samui starting April 1. (For more details log on:

http://airlinesairportsmalaysia.blogspot.com/2012/02/bangkok-airways-to-fly-koh-samui-kl-koh.html)

Among some the hotels that were present were Khaolak Laguna Phangnga, R-Mar Resort and Spa in Patong, Phuket, Railay Bay Resort in Krabi, Ban Thai Beach Resort & Spa in Patong, Phuket, Cape Sienna Hotel & Villas from Phuket, Aonang Princeville Resort and Spa from Krabi and a few others.
A-1 Hotels were busy promoting their hotel properties in Bangkok and Pattaya including one located near Suvarnabhumi Airport

.Peach Group presented their three resort properties in Phuket with Peach Hill Hotel & Resort, Andaman Cannacia Resort & Spa and Peach Blossom Resort.

One regular travel agent that participated in the road show is Charn Wongsatayanont from Phuket Jet Tours Co Ltd, who comes to meet his old business contacts and to establish new ones every year.

Charn Wongsatayanont (right) with travel writer Laura Lee (left) and outbound travel operator Jason Lim, MD of GTT - KL

Discovery Holidays Co, Ltd and Group Company with its head office in Bangkok were busy at its promotion desk with Malaysian Travel Agents seen waiting for their turn to discuss business opportunities with the company’s reps.

TAT officials informed the attendees that Thailand had recovered from the severe flooding toward the end of last year and tourism products and attractions are back to normal operation.

For year 2011, Malaysian recorded the top arrival to Thailand with 2,470,686 tourists with an increase of 19.98% and for the first timer visitors saw an increase of 200%. Repeat Malaysian visitors to Thailand were recorded at 60% of the total arrivals.

The average spending per Malaysian tourists in Thailand was recorded at USD128.76 per day.

After the business was done, TAT invited the guests to a dinner in the evening filled with Thai cultural dances, a video show on Thailand tourism product update and ends the night with a lucky draw consisting of many holiday packages to Thailand.

Lucky people win prizes to Thailand

Johor Premium Outlets a successful tourists shopping attraction

By Anthony Tan email: micemalaysiabeyond@gmail.com

Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen made a working visit recently to the Johor Premium Outlets (JPO) as part of her three days Johor tourism update programme.

JPO is a 50:50 joint venture between Genting Simon, a subsidiary of Genting Berhad, and the largest real estate company in the US, Simon Property Group, with its head office in Indianapolis, Indiana.

(Picture Left) Ng signing the visitors book at the Tourism Malaysia Information Office

JPO is the first premium outlet in Southeast Asia, a concept of a collection upscale shopping outlets highlighting international designers and leading brands offering past one or two seasons and overruns branded items. Shoppers to these outlets enjoys attractive savings of 25% to 65% on the price tag from brands like Adidas, Armani, Brooks Brothers, Burberry, Canali, Coach, Esprit, Ermenegildo Zegna, Gap, Guess, Lacoste, Michael Kors, Nike, Oroton, Ralph Lauren, Salvatore Ferragamo, Swiss Watch Gallery, Timberland, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, DKNY, Tumi and including local brands like Royal Selangor.

Ng was briefed on JPO operations and updates by Genting Simon Sdn Bhd assistant manager –

marketing, Justin Cheah who was on hand to

show her around the 80 outlets including the food court serving a wide spread of cuisine.



She was told that JPO has surpassed its expectations of the forecasted visitors and there are also plans to open two new premium outlets in Malacca and Sepang.

"JPO has managed to attract more than one million visitors since it opened in December, with 80% of them being domestic tourists," as Ng spoke at the press conference after touring the outlets.

Ng (fourth from right) with Tourism Malaysia Director General Dato Azizan (third from right) and Tourism Ministry Secretary General Dato Ong (fifth from right) together with senior officers from Tourism Malaysia with the message "JUST DO IT"

She further gave some suggestions to the management on how JPO could work with her ministry in international promotions at the various travelmarts and tourism conferences which Tourism Malaysia participate annually in order to attract more tourists to shop here.

She added “In 2011, 30% of tourism expenditure was channelled to shopping, an increase of 3% from the previous year. We expect this number to continue to increase and we target expenditure for shopping to grow up to 38% by the year 2020.”

Ng said “The opening of more Premium Outlets in the country would contribute to the economy of the country as well as attract more tourists to do their shopping here.”

To encourage tourists to spend more, Ng said some of the initiatives taken by her ministry had requested the government to make duty free another 300 popular items that tourists sort after in their shopping list.

The retailers must play their part by increasing their stocks with more variety of branded items, control the pricing of goods and offer special discounts to be competitive in order to attract more tourists to shop in Malaysia.

10th Thai International Travel Fair from 23-26 February 2012

By Anthony Tan email:micemalaysiabeyond@gmail.com

The 10th Thai International Travel Fair (TITF) to be organised by The Thai Travel Agents Association, the Association of Domestic Travel and with the co-operation of Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) will be held at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre from Feb 23-26.

TITF will feature over 1,100 booths which mainly promoting travel and holiday best deals to the consumer market. It is expected to attract about 800,000 visitors for the four-day event with the theme of "Oh! Summer"

TITF generated Bt1.2 billion in sales revenue at the last February event.

TTAA has over 1,000 members mostly related to Thailand’s outbound travel sector that generates about 5 million overseas trips a year.

President Charoen Wangananont informed that the TTAA will spending about 55 million baht to organise this year's event, with an increase by 10% from last year. Six million baht will be spent on the advertising to promote awareness of TIFF and expected to generate an estimated Bt1.3 billion in sales. The proportion of this year show will be 55% for domestic tourism and 45% outbound tourism.

He also disclosed that Japan continues to support TITF for the second year with 40 booths booked under the Japan National Tourism Organisation to promote its signature destinations. India has confirmed with 10 booths to highlight its promotion of the "Buddha's Footsteps". Other strong supporters are coming from Nepal, Sri Lanka and Myanmar that will be making their strong presence.

He added “The new product at the fair this year is Disneyland Hong Kong will be introducing Toy Story Land and visitors to the show will get the experience of the Asia’s first and the world’s second Toy Story land from Disneyland. The national tourist office from Uzbekistan will be here for the first time to promote its tourism products and attractions.”

“The up-coming 10th TTAA will act as a good indicator for the outbound market in Thailand. We will get a better picture after the show,” said Charoen.

TAT is confident in forecasting of 19.5 million international arrivals with the revenue of 760 billion baht, up by 7% from last year despite of the global economic slowdown.

It expected the domestic tourists this year will take an estimated 107 million tripsto generate the revenue of 440 billion baht.

Malaysia Property Exposition [1] from 2 – 4 March 2012

By Anthony Tan email:micemalaysiabeyond@gmail.com

The Real Estate and Housing Developers' Association (REHDA) will be holding its first of the biannual national level Malaysia Property Exposition (MAPEX) from 2-4 March at the Mid Valley Exhibition Centre (MVEC) while MAPEX [2] is slated to be held from 19-21 October 2012.

MAPEX is one of the key events of REHDA going into the 13th year and for the first time it will be open to international property developers with the appropriate themed “Home and Abroad”.

In an update by organising chairman and past president Ng Sing Leong said “There are 67 companies which had confirmed participation and this will the biggest showcase of properties on sale. We also have confirmed participations from Thailand and the Philippines with Australia and China in the process of confirmation.

This year REHDA will be using all the three halls in MVEC with the developers showcasing over 300 projects from all over the country like Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Johor, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak and others”.

Ng further added MAPEX is expected to attract 50,000 visitors over the three days.

[Picture: from left to right - Datuk Ng with National Council Member REHDA Wilayah Persekutuan (KL) Branch Chairman N K Tong]

There will be various categories of commercial and residential properties available with price ranges to suit individual budget and locations on offer. As usual there will be seminars on property subjects over the three days for house buyers.

Other regular participants in MAPEX are the banks and financial institutions as well as housing and local government authorities to play their role in providing information and advice to the public.

Click on the Youtube clip and get some tips from Ng on what to look for when shopping for a property.



Getting to Mid Valley for MAPEX

Even there are more than 1,000 car park bays available at Mid-Valley, it is advisable to be there early (before 10.30am) to get a car park easily. Anytime after that, is playing musical chair to get a parking space and it can be frustrating especial during the weekend.

Alternatively is to get by KTM Kommuter which has a train stop at Mid Valley itself. You can use the Putra line to get to the nearest stop to Mid Valley at Abdullah Hukum and take a taxi or Rapid KL after that.

MAPEX opening hours from 10am to 9pm daily and free admission.

19th Travel Tour Expo expected to attract more than 60,000 visitors

By Anthony Tan

The theme for this year’s Travel Tour Expo 2012 (TTE 2012) is “One Stop Shop to the World” and expected to attract more than 60,000 visitors from around the Philippines and the region.

The annual TTE organised by the Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA) with the Department of Tourism, told a press conference that TTE 2012 promises visitors the event will feature wider variety of travel options and special packages that are only available onsite from February 17 to 19, 2012 at the SMX Convention Centre Halls 1 to 4 in Pasay City (Metro Manila).

“The Travel Tour Expo is very unique this year, that we have embassies participating with us, particularly the Japan embassy, PTAA believes that this is our way of helping international relations, and we are looking forward to tourism through Japan to Philippines and Philippines to Japan,” PTAA President and Co-Chairperson Aileen Clemente said

The three-day event will have over 450 booths featuring more than 200 local and international organisations including airline companies, cruise operators, domestic tour operators, government agencies embassies, national tourism organisations, hotels and resorts, travel agencies, tour operators and many more.

Philippine Airlines (PAL), the country’s flag carrier had signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with PTAA as the official carrier and supported Citibank as Platinum sponsor and official credit card partner. The event is also supported by Tieza as the Bronze sponsor.

The expo is open to the public for a minimal entrance fee of P50 for regular visitors and P20 for senior citizens.

The Travel Tour Expo (TTE) was conceptualized to showcase the products and services offered by its members since 1994.

The 18th TTE in 2011 attracted 68,000 visitors and generated P300 million in sales.

For information on the 19thTravel Tour Expo 2012, please contact:

PHILIPPINE TRAVEL AGENCIES ASSOCIATION
12-1G EGI-Rufino Plaza, Taft cor.
Sen. Gil Puyat Aves., Pasay City 1300 PH
TEL: (632) 552-0026 to 29
FAX: (632) 552-0030
WEBSITE: www.ptaatraveltourexpo.com.ph
EMAIL: info@ptaatraveltourexpo.com.ph

Or the Event Manager:

FAIRS AND MORE, INC.
19th flr. Philippine AXA Life Centre
Sen. Gil Puyat ave. cor Tindalo St.
Makati City 1200 PHILIPPINES

TEL: (632) 845.1324 / (632) 759.6680
FAX: (632) 845.1395 / (632) 759.6690
WEBSITE: www.fairsandmore.com.ph
EMAIL: traveltour@fairsandmore.com.ph

Malaysian Convention and Exhibition Bureau Targets Australian Corporate and Incentive Groups

By Anthony Tan email: micemalaysiabeyond@gmail.com

With Malaysian Convention and Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB) successes in bringing over 9,000 participants from China under its “Malaysia’s Twin Deal Programme” launched in China last September, it is now targeting Australian corporate and incentive groups in Melbourne and Sydney to Malaysia.

The inaugural sales mission Australia by Ho Yoke Ping,

MyCEB’s General Manager of Sales and Marketing, is

offering the first package. Deal 1 offers value added support

for participants.

Among the privileges lined up are complimentary canopy walk at Bukit Nanas Forest Reserve, choice of cultural showcase activities, a ‘Feng Shui’ talk by renowned Malaysian ‘Feng Shui’ master or a Malaysian cultural experience, shopping discount vouchers, welcome cocktails and police escorts.

She added, “Deal 2 offers incentive rewards for Corporate and Incentive Planners and is based on cumulative numbers of participants.

“The Corporate and Incentive Planners will be able to redeem vacation packages to one of the destinations either Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Langkawi, Kota Kinabalu or Kuching inclusive of return air tickets, accommodation at five-star hotels, spa session and other goodies.

“These destinations are the top ‘must visit’ incentive destinations in Malaysia, known for its lush rainforest, fantastic beaches and heritage sites.

“MyCEB would give each participant a special welcome packs containing a personalised - Welcome Letter from MyCEB CEO Zulkefli Sharif, an eco-friendly reusable drinking bottle, Kuala Lumpur map, Malaysian cultural postcards and an exclusive tote bag."

MyCEB CEO Zulkefli Sharif

The Twin Deal programme is applicable to corporate and incentive groups from Australia and confirmed bookings must be made between January and December 2012 with the groups’ arrival from January 2012 to 31 December 2013.

Ho is offering additional incentive for the first 30 bookings.

“MyCEB would like to invite all event planners in Australia to grab this opportunity and to experience what Malaysia has to offer in terms of incentive products and services. The first 30 planners to booked a cumulative group of 500 participants to Malaysia will stand a chance to redeem an iPad 2,” she added

Meeting planners and incentive agents who need more information about the Twin Deal can call MyCEB @ +603 2034 2090 or email sales@myceb.com.my