RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Tourism Malaysia will participate in the PTM 2019 being held from 8 to 10 October 2019 in Karachi Expo Center to welcome more tourists from Pakistan by highlighting VM2020 campaign.

This year, a total of 18 organisations from Malaysia will participate in PTM including hotels and resorts, travel agencies, product operators and tourism associations. Tourism Malaysia also takes this opportunity to launch Visit Malaysia 2020 in Pakistan. The tourist arrival target from Pakistan during the campaign will be 81,000 tourists.

Commenting on the bilateral relationships between Malaysia and Pakistan, Khairul Nazran Abd Rahman, Consul General at the Consulate General of Malaysia in Karachi, on Monday said, “Although the major cornerstone of our relations is trade and investment, Malaysia remains committed to deepen the breadth and depth of our relations in the tourism front with Pakistan. Our active participation in the annual Pakistan Travel Mart speaks volume of our aspiration towards this endeavour.”

Shahrin Mokhtar, Director of Tourism Malaysia in Dubai said, “With the support of our industry partners, our goal was to bring exposure and create awareness on Malaysia to these markets, resulting in the increase of tourist flow from Pakistan to Malaysia. Pakistan Travel Mart is an excellent platform to promote the Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign in Pakistan.”

Malaysia recorded 74,458 tourist arrivals from Pakistan from in 2018, a growth of 39.3 percent compared to 2017. Moreover, tourist arrivals from January to July 2019 are 55,240, an increase of 26.0 percent compared to the same period last year.

Latest attractions in Malaysia include Genting Highlands, which has been refreshed with a new indoor theme park, Skytropolis, and shopping opportunities at Genting Highlands Premium Outlets and Sky Avenue Mall; Melaka, which is located two and a half hours drive from Kuala Lumpur and offers a variety of attractions for Pakistani tourists interested to learn Malaysia’s rich history; Johor Bahru, a family destination renowned as the country’s new theme park hub; and Kota Kinabalu in Sabah, which offers exceptional attractions for nature lovers and soft adventurers.

Speaking of Malaysia’s presence, Tourism Malaysia, Dubai and Consulate General of Malaysia, Karachi have been working with the various quarters in expanding the cooperative activities in the tourism front. Certainly, Malaysia looks forward to increase and enhanced our countries relationship to greater height for the benefit and interest of our two nations.

In 2019, Malaysia was yet again named the top Muslim Travel Destination 2019 by Mastercard and Crescent Ratings 2019 Global Muslim Travel Index. Malaysia also enjoys an outstanding international reputation as a healthcare and wellness destination, having been consistently recognised in industry programmes including the Medical Travel Journal (IMTJ) Medical Travel Awards. Moreover, Kuala Lumpur was ranked 6th in the list of most visited cities in 2018 based on the Mastercard Global Destination Cities Index 2019 report.