Trip.com Group has signed a three-year Memorandum of Collaboration with Tourism Malaysia to expand their existing partnership beyond China, and into the wider Asia-Pacific region.
Leveraging Trip.com Group’s global resources, the focus will be on attracting more Chinese and international visitors to Malaysia through cooperation on the marketing front, including key product promotions, especially for hotels and attractions. More areas within Malaysia, such as Johor and Sarawak, will also be promoted to travellers.
In conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Malaysia, Harley Travel will work with Trip.com and the Ministry of Tourism to promote tourism between Malaysia and China on the back of the visa-free travel arrangement between both countries.
Based on Trip.com Group’s data, some of the most popular Malaysian cities for travellers globally are Kota Kinabalu, Penang, Langkawi and Semporna.
Edison Chen, vice president of destination marketing & strategic alliances, Trip.com Group, said: “Tourism to Malaysia has picked up since the start of visa-free travel arrangements with China, but we believe there is still more we can do to enhance Malaysia’s profile as a key tourist destination. Trip.com Group is committed to helping Malaysia’s tourism industry grow not just in absolute numbers, but also in attracting quality tourists.”
Manoharan Periasamy, director general of Tourism Malaysia, said: “This expansion of our agreement to cover the whole of Asia-Pacific shows how successful it has been, and we are excited to work together to enhance our tourism promotion efforts to other regional markets and show travellers what Malaysia has to offer.”
In addition, Tourism Malaysia recently unveiled its strategic roadmap for Visit Malaysia 2026, which aims to attract 35.6 million international tourist arrivals and 147.1 billion ringgit (US$31.3 billion) in tourist expenditure.
