Malaysians Pleased With Results Of The Berlin Tourism Fair.

14th March, 2013

Malaysians Pleased With Results Of The Berlin Tourism Fair.

BERLIN - Taking stock of their participation in the just-concluded Berlin International Tourism Bourse (ITB), Malaysian exhibitors said they were pleased with the positive response received from trade visitors.

Azrina Muslim, director of sales and marketing of Rainforest Resorts in Perak, said she was going back home with "lots of good business enquiries with potential to translate into tangible business". "Germany has become our major market in Europe. We notice a sharp rise in German arrivals despite the (economic) crisis in Europe. Germans are adventurous people and love nature," Azrina said in an interview with Bernama on the outcome of her third year at the ITB show, billed the world's biggest travel trade fair.

Noting that Germans stayed an average of three days or two nights and spent about US$120 per person per night, she said her resort received 1,531 arrivals from Germany in 2011.

Asian Overland Services Tours and Travel Sdn Bhd group director Anthony Wong said the company's strategy was to offer creative and innovative products ranging from nature tours to conferences. Noting that Malaysia was seen as a diverse nation, he said it had its own niche following, thanks to factors such as safety, wide use of English and the fact that it was easy to travel within the country.

Wong, a veteran of the international tourism and travel industry, said he had observed Malaysia's rise as a tourist destination, with tourist traffic surging to over 20 million now. He said economic uncertainties in the United States and Europe did not "have much of an impact" on tourist traffic to Malaysia as it had been minimised with the strong growth posted by a sharp rise in traffic from Asia.

"We were able to get good contacts at the ITB. We met our old contacts but also got many new ones. In short, it was a very satisfying performance for us," Wong said. Asian Overland gets the bulk of its business from Germany, he said, adding that it was also getting business from far-flung places as the turnout from around the world at his booth confirmed.

By: Manik Mehta

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