MALAYSIA WORKS ITS MAGIC ON MIDEAST TRAIL

By Muin Abdul Majid

DUBAI, May 26 (Bernama) -- Malaysia weaved its charm on the Middle East
recently as the Southeast Asian nation sought to boost tourist arrivals from the
region.

It all started with Malaysia's participation in the May 5-8 Arabian Travel
Market (ATM) 2009 in Dubai, followed by a well-received roadshow to Jordan and
Syria.

From the word "go", the Malaysian tourism promotion machinery led by Tourism
Malaysia at the ATM went into overdrive as countries from all over the world
vied for potential visitors amid wobbly global economic conditions which have
affected people's appetite for travel.

With the Malaysian "Jalur Gemilang" flag flying proudly in front of the
Malaysia Pavilion at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre,
Team Malaysia rolled up its sleeves and persevered in a bid to steer 250,000
Middle Eastern tourists to Malaysia this year.

Bringing in a cultural troupe was a stroke of genius by Tourism Malaysia as
people kept coming back for mesmerising traditional Malay dance and kompang
sessions performed by its talented members, whose megawatt smiles and friendly
demeanour proved to be a crowd puller.

Malaysia started to court the Middle East market almost 10 years ago, and it
has blossomed into a love affair that brought in 264,338 tourist arrivals from
this region in 2008.

Tourism Malaysia deputy director-general Azizan Noordin reckoned that due to
the global recession, the number of buyers at ATM 2009 was probably down by
about five to seven percent, mainly from the European market.

But he had good news, saying: "This hasn't affected us that much because
people from this region are still coming to us. You can see that our pavilion is
among the busy ones from Day 1.

Azizan knows the Middle East market like the palm of his hand, having played
a key role at the Tourism Malaysia Jeddah office a while back.

"The Middle East market is quite dear to me. Although I'm back in Malaysia
now, I still keep track of what's happening in the market," he said, adding that
Malaysia's participation in the ATM over the years had increased the country's
profile in this region.

As the Malaysian participants met with potential buyers and business
partners, Azizan had his hands full entertaining guests at the pavilion in
between interviews with various newspapers and television stations.

He and other Tourism Malaysia officials took every opportunity to draw the
spotlight on what Malaysia had to offer to tourists, giving particular emphasis
on special arrangements to cater to the needs of Muslim travellers during the
fasting month of Ramadan.

Also highlighted were new destinations like states of Terengganu, Sabah,
Melaka and Pahang, as well as niche tourism products like the homestay
programme, Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H), luxury vacation, medical and health
t5urism, ecotourism, horse riding, diving and education.

According to Azizan, Malaysian tourism industry stakeholders would need to
up their game as Malaysia was eyeing for more visitors, including those in the
high-end category.

Boosted by the award-winning "Malaysia Truly Asia" promotional campaign, the
Southeast Asian nation of 27 million drew a total of 22.05 million visitors last
year, generating a whopping RM49.56 billion (US$13.76 billion) in receipts.

In view of an expected decline in the number of long-haul visitors amid the
current testy economic situation, Malaysia is wooing more travellers from
regional markets like the Middle East, China, Japan, Korea, the 10-member Asean
regional grouping as well as promoting domestic tourism.

For the 16th edition of ATM, Tourism Malaysia roped in 100 participants from
84 organisations comprising 55 hotels, 23 tour operators, four state
governments, KL Tower and Malaysia Airlines.

Some of them joined Tourism Malaysia's post-ATM roadshow to Jordan and Syria
where Malaysia cast its spell on tourism industry players and journalists in
both countries.

Azizan repeated the same message at press conferences and speeches delivered
during gala dinners in Amman and Damascus -- that Malaysia was throwing its
doors wide open for visitors from the Middle East and beyond.

He drove home the point that countries should not view each other as rivals
as far as tourism was concerned because a better proposition would be to
complement each other, like what was being done between Malaysia, Thailand and
Singapore.

Guests appeared to be enraptured by rousing cultural performances courtesy
of Pak Ngah Production dancers, invariably drawing thunderous applause from the
floor.

Malaysian ambassador to Syria Ibrahim Abdullah reckoned that the Syrian
public had so much to learn about Malaysia.

"I would like to commend Tourism Malaysia for conducting this roadshow in
Syria as it's good to show first-hand what Malaysia is all about," he told
Bernama in Damascus.

"I can say that the wonderful cultural show put up by Tourism Malaysia has
been an eye-opener for Syrians," said Ibrahim.

The Malaysian envoy in Jordan, Abdul Malek Abdul Aziz, said besides
attracting more Jordanian visitors to Malaysia, efforts should be made to
encourage Malaysians to visit Jordan, which is famous for its stupendous Petra
ruins.

According to him, Kuala Lumpur and Amman enjoyed good relations at the
political level, and this should be expanded to include other fields such as
tourism.
-- BERNAMA