Malaysia's Action Packed Year of Events anf Festivals

Tourism Malaysia will focus its global marketing efforts on promoting events and festivals taking place in the country this year, with a first-of-its-kind Malaysia International Tourism Exchange (MITE) to be a calendar heavyweight. Tourism Malaysia acting director general Azizan Noordin said: “We will be concentrating on marketing the year’s events under the umbrella brand of Luxury Malaysia. “Our strategy will involve participating in international travel trade fairs and seminars, public relations and advertising activities, and organising hosted fam trips for foreign travel consultants and media.” About 40 per cent of its total marketing budget of RM130 million (US$41.5 million) has been set aside to do this. Under the initiative, Malaysia will promote events such the Kuala Lumpur International Shoe Festival, the Rainforest World Music Festival in Sarawak and the ASEAN Food Heritage Trail. Key highlights of the year are the 61st PATA Conference from April 20-22 and MITE 2012 from May 31-June 3. To be held at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang, MITE 2012 will span five halls: an international hall, a Malaysia hall, an Asian hall, a China hall, a B2C hall and a hall featuring Asian cuisine. Up to 600,000 visitors and 1,500 exhibitors from 25 countries are expected. Norman Kumar, group deputy CEO of the event orgainser, Myevents International, said: “The concept is a tourism exchange, not a fair. It will bring Malaysia to the world, and the world to Malaysia.” He added: “It is definitely on a bigger scale compared to ATF or ITB Asia, which focuses on bringing overseas traffic to ASEAN and Asia respectively. MITE has a focus on ASEAN, with Asia as a bigger picture, and the globe as the overall picture.” In 2012, Malaysia is targeting 24.5 million overseas arrivals and RM58 billion in tourism receipts.