Tourism Malaysia and Expedia Group join hands for global marketing campaigns

Tourism Malaysia has partnered with travel platform Expedia Group to launch a series of marketing campaigns in global markets such as Australia, the UK, and the US. The campaign aims to promote international inbound travel to Malaysia from these three markets and is aligned with Tourism Malaysia's tourism promotion strategies. 

The global campaign will spotlight Malaysia's hidden tourist attractions, as well as promote the accommodation available to Expedia Group's monthly visitors globally. According to Tourism Malaysia, this collaboration will also support Malaysia's target of achieving two million tourist arrivals and RM8.6 billion in tourist spending set for its national "Malaysia Truly Asia 2022" campaign.

Aside from boosting promotion internationally, Tourism Malaysia is also working on enhancing its domestic promotion with the local media. Nine mainstream and new media, namely Astro, Media Prima Omnia, Star Media Group, RTM, Sinar Harian, Nanyang Siang Pau, Borneo Post, Free Malaysia Today, and BFM 89.9 Radio, will be engaged to support the campaign. In addition, two ambient media, KLIA TV and AEON, will work together with Tourism Malaysia in enhancing the Cuti-Cuti Malaysia Campaign by producing branded content and niche programmes to cater to the local market. 

“Tourism Malaysia will be intensifying the campaign together with these respective platforms through various means, including electronics, print, and digital, covering tourist destinations within Malaysia. A special thanks to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government Malaysia (KPKT) for providing us with their digital billboards across the states in Malaysia,” said Nancy Binti Shukri, minister of tourism, arts and culture of Tourism Malaysia. 

She also added that the Internet of Things is no longer a stranger to them, and thus it was only crucial for the tourism industry to step onto the bandwagon and be one with this new trend and lifestyle". 

On Expedia Group's end, vice president of operations and services, Doug Park, said: "As the world’s travel platform, Expedia Group is proud to be embarking on this journey with Tourism Malaysia to promote and help Malaysia rebuild its reign as a top tourist destination in the region, connecting Malaysia’s tourism industry to millions of travellers in Expedia Group’s worldwide network." 

Malaysia reopened its borders on 1 April and prior to that, Tourism Malaysia partnered with brands including GoPro and Petron Malaysia to promote domestic tourism. Meanwhile, just this week, Malaysia Airlines expanded its travel pass offerings with the launch of MHflypass ASEAN, a fixed-rate pass that allows multiple trips to exciting destinations all-year-round across ASEAN. With the introduction of MHflypass ASEAN, passengers can now fly to 12 cities within ASEAN, through the airline's network.

In 2020, Tourism Malaysia partnered with Visa Malaysia to support the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture in driving inbound tourism as well. The long-term partnership sought to promote Malaysia as a travel destination, especially in the shopping segment. Visa utilised its data analytics capabilities and research to produce traveller insights, as well as the Visa Preferred Merchant Programme which features a variety of rewards and benefits for cardholders.

Photo Courtesy: 123RF

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