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THE Malaysian Tourism Agencies Association (MATA) launched the Familiarization (FAM) Trip program to enliven the promotion of “Cuti-Cuti Malaysia” among tourism industry activists in the country.
According to President of the Malaysia Tourism Travel Association (MATA), Dato Mohd Khalid Harun in Kuala Lumpur, said the main purpose of this program was to provide up-to-date information regarding tourism products available around Malaysia.
“In addition, MATA also wants to help its members, including tourism agents specializing in outbound tourism before this. This way will be able to give them an idea to create a tourism package within the country, which at the same time will be able to boost the domestic tourism industry,” he said.
He added, this was in line with the guidelines contained in the “United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Global Guidelines to Restart Tourism 2020”. The tourism industry is the most affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dato Mohd Khalid Harun said the tourism industry provided a return of 15% to Malaysia’s GDP and provided a source of more than 20% of the workforce so moving the sector back was very significant.
“This FAM Trip has received cooperation from various royal agencies including Tourism Malaysia, Tourism Melaka, Tourism Terengganu, LADA and many more. Besides that, the owner of tourism products has also helped a lot in ensuring this program runs smoothly, such as Sky Mirror in Kuala Selangor,” he noted.
He explained, not many people know that the famous Sky Mirror in Brazil is in Kuala Selangor, as well as the famous Blue Tears in Fujian China, also in Kuala Selangor. Therefore, it is important to introduce these products to tourism industry activists so they can be marketed appropriately.
“The FAM Trip program will be held every month starting this August and will be accompanied by MATA members consisting of owners of travel agents and media throughout the program that will cross Malaysia,” he concluded. [special photo]
