Malaysia shines at the GTS

One of the most proactive tourism boards in the region, Malaysia Tourism once again showed their prowess by presenting their most valuable offerings at the first-ever virtual event in the region, Gulf Travel Show. The partners share their experience.

Shahrin Mokhtar, Director, Tourism Malaysia, Dubai
GTS 2020 proved to be a success in connecting buyers with industry players during this critical time. Tourism Malaysia is impressed with such a well-organised digital event and the smooth process of meetings with visitors. Having an assigned project manager for each exhibitor was a unique service that helped us a lot. It’s a pleasure to be part of GTS 2020 and we are happy that our Malaysia hotels and tour operators took part at this professional business platform. Malaysia is looking forward to welcome tourists again soon and we are keen to showcase our latest tourism products’ updates for trade & media partners, where ‘Malaysia, Truly Asia’ is always a destination to keep in mind.

Fatmawati Mohamed Nor, Managing Director, JF Holidays Sdn Bhd, Malaysia
The Gulf Travel Show was an awesome experience, although at first we were quite nervous and not knowing how it will work. Apart from the scheduled appointments there were many that came in as impromptu buyers, so we were quite busy. The buyers were interested to know what we could offer as current trends. Requirements are still the same, but we offer different trends of tours to them.

Olivia Ooi, General Manager – Sales, Desaru Coast
The Gulf Travel Show was better than we expected. We met quality buyers who showed immense interest in our destination. It was great to learn about their expectations and trends of the GCC market in the current scenario. It has been a great learning experience, which has given us an opportunity to plan ahead and welcome GCC guests.

Faizal Iskandar Ghazali, Director of Sales – Wholesale – Sales Department, Sunway Resorts Hotel and Spa
Overall, Gulf Travel Show is a good platform to revive and jumpstart the long hiatus of tourism industry players interaction, it does connect to some familiar business partners and new potential business contacts, approximately about 20-30 per day on schedule or walk-ins, most are by chatting on the message screen instead of video. Due to COVID-19, the need to communicate via online or virtual media is preferred and required for safety reasons.