Tourism Malaysia To Make Strong Pitch At New York Times Travel Show

By Manik Mehta NEW YORK, Jan 10 (Bernama) -- Tourism Malaysia is to make a strong pitch for the country to be a destination of North American travellers at the New York Times Travel Show from Jan 27 to 29. Its vice president in New York, Ahmad Johanif Mohd Ali said Tourism Malaysia would present Malaysia as an attractive destination, highlighting three major attractions - culture, adventure and nature (CAN). The NYTTS is the most important trade show for the travel and tourism industry in North America. Unlike other travel shows in the region, which are highly specialised in certain segments of the tourism industry, the NYTTS attracts a large turnout of the trade and consumers. "We will encourage visitors to our pavilion to participate in various activities we are organising, including in our Facebook and will bring Malaysian costumes at the show and encourage visitors to try them out and pose for our Facebook," he said in an interview with Bernama in his office. Tourism Malaysia will use the colourful costumes worn in Sabah and Sarawak, among others, to catch the attention of tourists. Johanif himself is also going to be a participant at a panel on travel and tourism, and will speak on Malaysia as a CAN destination. "We have been sending our mails to invite customers to visit our stand and also our website www.malaysia.travel http://www.malaysia.travel which provides extensive tourism-related information," he said. In the first eight months of 2016 tourist arrivals in Malaysia from the United States declined to 149,696, down 7.9 per cent from 162,544 in the corresponding period of 2015. Tourism Malaysia in New York believes that the depreciation of the Ringgit against the US dollar (currently US$1=RM4.5) has created a favourable climate for tourism from the US because it is making visits "cheap as never before". "Based on the feedback we have received, Americans like Malaysia because of its people who are considered to be very friendly. "Americans have been saying that Malaysians love smiling. Another plus point is that Americans find it easy to travel within Malaysia because most Malaysians speak English and the signs on the road are also in English," he said. Johanif said Malaysian food was also very popular. Indeed, McCormick & Company, the US spice company, listed Malaysian food in its 2016 Flavour Forecast as one of the popular cuisines in the US. -- BERNAMA