Malaysia plans to greet 60,000 New Zealanders next year as the country preparing itself for Visit Malaysia 2020 (VM 2020), a campaign targeting to bring in 30 million international tourists.
Datuk Musa Yusof ,Tourism Malaysia director-general was in Auckland yesterday leading a travel trade mission to reinforce the message that Malaysia presented an attractive holiday proposition to New Zealand travellers.
He said Malaysia’s blend of ‘culture, cuisine and nature’ should appeal strongly to New Zealanders’ innate sense of adventure which was made accessible by language, customs and some familiar aspects of Malay culture.
“New Zealand, like Malaysia, is a multi-ethnic and diverse population living in relative peace and harmony. We hope that this mutual connection will serve as a basis to strengthen tourism relations with each other,” he said in a statement issued by Tourism Malaysia.
Musa pointed out that Malaysia presented an exceptional value-for-money proposition where the Kiwi dollar would go a long way in value, hence offering the opportunity to elevate both the standard and length of stay of the Malaysian holiday.
In 2018, a total of 50,698 New Zealanders visited Malaysia of the overall 25.8 million international tourists arrivals to the Southeast Asian country.
At present there are seven flights per week offering 2,009 seats from New Zealand to Malaysia, the statement says.
