AUSTRALIA LANGKAWI'S NEW TOURISM TARGET

LANGKAWI (Malaysia), Aug 24 (Bernama) -- Australia is the Langkawi
Development Authority's (Lada) next target to attract foreign tourists, after
its success in Singapore, India and Germany.

Pishol Ishak, Kedah branch chairman of the Malaysian Association of Tour and
travel Agents (Matta), said that towards this end, the branch and Lada, in
collaboration with Tourism Malaysia and Malaysia Airlines (MAS), would hold a
roadshow in Australia in October to promote the resort island.

He said 43,000 Australians visited Langkawi last year and the number for the
first six months this year was 15,000.

Langkawi is an archipelago of 99 islands in the Andaman Sea, some 30 km off
the mainland coast of northwestern Malaysia. The islands are a part of the state
of Kedah, which is adjacent to the Thai border.

On the three-day mission to Singapore last month, he said it had been
successful with many queries received from tour agencies there.

Lada statistics showed that 37,988 tourists from Singapore visited Langkawi
last year compared with 34,643 in 2007, the fourth highest number, after
tourists from the United Kingdom, Thailand and Australia, he said.

-- BERNAMA