KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21 – Langkawi and Kuching have been selected by Tourism Malaysia as eco travel destinations for the Covid-19-Free Destination Programme, says Encik Zulkifly Md Said, Director-General of Tourism Malaysia.
This programme would eventually be expanded to popular resort islands such as Pulau Redang, Pulau Perhentian and Pulau Tioman as well as other attractions in states such as Johor, Melaka, Penang and Sabah, he said at the launch of the “Foliday 2.0 GoTraz, Go Live, Go Explore” virtual tourism programme here last night.
The event was a collaboration between the Malaysia Inbound Chinese Association (MICA), an inbound tourism organisation, and GoTraz Sdn Bhd, a tourism-based entity that promotes virtual and real-world tourism activities.
Zulkifly also said that Tourism Malaysia would position Malaysia as the Top-of-the-Mind Ecotourism Destination of the World as part of its long-term promotional efforts.
“In terms of the abundance of land and natural landscapes, Malaysia should be able to compete directly with other eco destinations,” he added.
Zulkifly said the challenge ahead for tourism was not seeing recovery within this year, or even next year, but how Malaysia would prepare for long term success, and reinvent global travel.
MICA President Dato Dr Angie Ng said the one-year joint collaboration with GoTraZ will showcase 52 weekly programmes on eight tourism themes — mountains, tropical forests, hotels & resorts, self-driving tours, InstaGram spots, cuisines, scuba diving and islands.
Besides focusing on travel destinations and exciting leisure activities, there will also be presentations by tour guides on their insights and experiences.
Dato’ Dr Ng said the programme, which would be from 8pm to 9pm every Friday is expected to attract some 700,000 viewers from Malaysia, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Ada Poon, AMLEISURE Group CEO and GoTraZ founder, said advances in technological developments and greater Internet usage around the world had enabled virtual tourism, also known as smart tourism, to be used in many facets of the exciting travel and tourism industry.
With the COVID-19 pandemic restricting where and when people can go, this has necessitated hotels, destinations and other industry players to start employing more creative ideas to set new trends, she said.
Poon, who is also Chairman of the Women & Young Entrepreneurs Division of SME Association of Malaysia, said entrepreneurs who had taken advantage of virtual tourism and travel were preparing themselves for better business when the world returns to normal and travellers start to pack their bags once again.
The GoTraz virtual travel show can be caught at Facebook via https://www.facebook.com/GoTrazMy/,
–WE