Malaysia Becoming Most-wanted Destination for Vietnamese Visitors

More Vietnamese people are considering Malaysia one of the best destinations to travel thanks to its diversified range of attractive entertainment programmes and cultural characters, perfect transport system, and reasonable charges of tourism services. Particularly, beautiful resorts and long coastal lines, spacious shopping centres and modern, specific architectures and designs of buildings in cities also are great attractions to foreign tourists. Last year, Malaysia welcomed 15,703,406 international tourists, up 13.3 million of the year's plan and reaching a 48.5 per cent growth. Malaysia is expected to lure 16.4 million international visitors in 2005. 

 

Vietnam will become a major tourist market for Malaysia in the coming year, said a representative from the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board in Hanoi at a seminar on updating the latest information about Malaysian tourism and new products of Genting Corporation, which was recently held in Hanoi.

Hon. Datuk Dr. Leo Michael Toyad, Malaysian Minister of Tourism, at the Launching Ceremony of Mega Sale Carnival 2005

 

The number of Vietnamese tourists to Malaysia in 2004 hit a record high of 42,088, up 194.3 per cent over 2003 and marking a successful year for Tourism Malaysia in Vietnam. Malaysia received 18,729 Vietnamese visitors in 2001, 21,158 in 2002 and 21,663 in 2003. 

 This year, Tourism Malaysia has acknowledged the remarkable growth of the Vietnamese market and pledged to carry out more promotion activities to obtain a target of over 45,000 Vietnamese tourists.

 

One of the most important tourism promotion activities of Malaysia is Mega Sale Carnival that is expected to lure more foreign tourists to the country for shopping. The official launching ceremony of Malaysia Mega Sale Carnival 2005 was officiated on July 23, 2005 by the Hon. Datuk Dr. Leo Michael Toyad, Malaysian Minister of Tourism, at IKANO Power Centre and the Curve in Mutiara Damansara, Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

Mega Sale is currently regarded by Vietnamese as the most interesting festival for tourism and shopping. At a press conference recently held in Hanoi by Malaysian Embassy and Malaysia Trade Promotion Board, Mr Amarjit Singh, representative of Malaysian Embassy in Hanoi said that this year the festival will last for six weeks (July 23-September 4, 2005). The festival has been organised for the last six years by Malaysian Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Domestic Consumption in an attempt to make Malaysia a leading destination of the region in tourism and shopping. "The prices of all items are reduced by 20-80 per cent. The Mega Sale is truly a big event, attracting not only Malaysian but also lots of foreign tourists", Mr Amarjit added.

Tourism is important for both Malaysia and Vietnam. Ms Pham Thi Huyen Tram, Marketing Representative of Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board in Hanoi said: "Young Vietnamese have now less interest in group tours, turning more and more to individual tourism. Therefore, we have designed three programmes for Vietnamese tourists: a group tour, an individual tour and a holiday tour".

A corner of Genting Highlands

Based on tours familiar to Vietnamese tourists, Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board in cooperation with Vietnamese and Malaysian partners has opened new tourist destinations, notably the new entertainment area for families called A'Famosa. This area is considered very interesting and is enhancing the reputation of Malaysia's tourism industry, helping Malaysia attract larger numbers of international visitors. When referring to Malaysia, Vietnamese people in particular and foreign tourists in general always mention Genting - the City of Entertainment - that is located in Genting Highlands, 2,000 metres above sea level. Visitors can go up to the city by motorway or on the longest and fastest cable car system in the world. Genting is regarded as the largest hotel complex in the world with over 10,000 rooms.

The festival is organised on the occasion of the 48th anniversary of Malaysian National Day (August 31, 2005). It has the cooperation of Malaysian and Vietnamese airlines and 14 tourist companies such as Vietnam tourism, Exotissimo, Global Travel Centre, Great Family, and Hanoi Redtour.

According to Ms Tram, Mega Sale 2004 attracted only 5,000 Vietnamese tourists in June and July, and 9,000 in August. In the first five months of 2005, the number of tourists stood at nearly 20,000, 56 per cent more than the same period last year. "We believe that Malaysia will attract more Vietnamese tourists this year as against 42,088 in 2004 and 21,663 in 2003", she added.

Malaysian cultural and gastronomy festivals will be organised at Hanoi Opera and Sheraton hotel from August 24 to September 1, 2005 to introduce Vietnam to the land and people of Malaysia.