“We are ready”: Tourism Malaysia wraps up successful Aussie roadshow

“We are ready”: Tourism Malaysia wraps up successful Aussie roadshow
By Alexandra Coulton


Tourism Malaysia finished up its 2022 Aussie roadshow last night in Sydney, concluding a busy week of reconnecting with trade partners.

The roadshow was a roaring success, bringing carefully selected representatives from Malaysia’s tourism offerings to meet with Australian travel agents and provide updates on all things Malaysia.

Noor Azlan Bakar, Tourism Malaysia’s senior deputy director for international promotion said it had been three years since he was last able to visit Australia.

“The response was very good in Perth and Melbourne, and I can see tonight that it’s even better in Sydney,” he said.

“Australia is always been very important to Malaysia in terms of tourists arrival; pre-COVID, we received 368,281 Australian travellers in Malaysia.

“And it’s always been in the top ten tourism source countries for us. Besides sightseeing, there are also some great friendship relations and some historical relationships. Australia is very, very important for Malaysia.”

Malaysia’s tourism industry made good use of the past two years, according to Noor Azlan, with the shutdown allowing time to pay closer attention to the country’s tourism product and ensure it is well prepared for tourism’s return.

“We’ve been able to tweak what we had in place previously; it helped us to to make sure that in terms of the safety and hygiene of the whole country is where it needs to be and, secondly, we’ve made sure our health system and facilities have been upgraded. We are ready.”

Noor Azlan noted that since opening its borders in April, Malaysia has already dropped many of its tourism restrictions, including the Blue Card travel pass, which many travellers have reported struggles with, pre- and on-arrival testing and quarantine requirements.

Also present was Giles Gilbert, Malaysia Airline’s regional manager, who pointed out the similarities between Australia and Malaysia when it came to COVID response and recovery.

“We both had fairly strict lockdowns and, interestingly, if you actually tracked what happened with COVID, we are very similar,” Gilbert said.

“Malaysian has an extremely high vaccination rate, including children, very similar to the Australian vaccination rates— it’s actually surprising how similar the two countries have actually followed each other. And therefore, in terms of travel, it’s now easy.”

Attendees also heard from the phenomenal Balljid Kour, Tourism Malaysia’s marketing executive for Australia, who took them through all the fantastic experiences on offer in Malaysia, from eco-tourism, to island hopping, ‘flop and drop’, family trips and more.

“I truly truly believe Malaysia is actually the hidden gemstone of Southeast Asia,” Kour said.

“Malaysia has got such dense rainforests where people can escape and reset. The best way to do it is go and reconnect back where everything started in nature.

“In Malaysia, you can pick any adventure you want, whether it’s the water, whether it’s the sky or whether you want to go down to Mother Earth.

The highlight of the night was a delicious Malaysian dinner accompanied by an entertaining quiz with loads of prizes on offer.

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