Visa Malaysia has signed a long-term partnership with Tourism Malaysia to provide support to the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC) to drive inbound tourism and promote Malaysia a preferred travel destination.
The partnership will leverage on Visa’s data analytics capabilities and research to generate relevant traveler insights. Additionally, the Visa Preferred Merchant Programme (VPM) is also expected to benefit the tourism sector through the benefits and rewards it will be able to offer.
Visa will also be aiding in the promotion of domestic tourism in collaboration with Tourism Malaysia’s Cuti-Cuti Malaysia campaign and share a variety of offers that are relevant for local Visa cardholders.
Visa Country Manager for Malaysia, Ng Kong Boon says the partnership is a key milestone to promote the country as a tourist destination and will also help Malaysia’s goal in becoming one of the top leading destinations to travel for local Malaysians. This in return, he says will help to promote domestic travels across the country as well.
Ng also points out that as contactless payment has grown over the last few years, with 50 percent of transactions done are now contactless.
“We are able to leverage our analytics capabilities to provide insights on travelers visiting Malaysia and our extensive global network to further help Tourism Malaysia promote Malysia as a leading tourist destination in the world,” says Ng.
Musa Hj Yusof, Director General Tourism Malaysia says both MOTAC and Tourism Malaysia have embarked on several efforts to promote the country as a must-visit tourism destination and the partnership will be able to attract more inbound tourist.
“2020 is a very special year as Visit Malaysia 2020 focuses on eco-tourism and culture,” says the director general.
The target for tourists arrival this year remains as 30 million and expenditure target is at RM 100 billion. Tourism Malaysia will also be collaborating with selected countries in order to boost tourism.
Yusof also points out that the arrivals of tourists from India has increased by 22 percent, making India the second biggest market after China. Talks with big travel operators have been ongoing in order to bring travel operators into Malaysia.
