Malaysia targets Taiwanese tourists with new packages, cultural performances, and a travel carnival at the Taipei Tourism Expo, aiming to boost arrivals and revenue.

Tourism Malaysia is continuing its marketing activities in Taiwan by participating in the Taipei Tourism Expo (TTE) to gain a quick win in terms of market share by positioning its destination as a leisure paradise escape with unique offerings for the Taiwanese through a four-day travel expo that takes place from 31st May until 4th June 2024, at the Taipei World Trade Centre.

During the expo, Malaysia will unveil new special interest packages that will captivate the Taiwanese and stimulate demand from this market, solidly positioning it as one of the preferred tourism destinations. Six (6) specially curated packages shall be introduced during the expo, namely Sarawak Delta Geopark & Gawai Packages, Dive into the Unimaginable Packages, Houseboat Packages, Unimaginable Golf Packages, Coffee Experience, and Malaysia Birdwatching Paradise. All packages will be featured to pique the Taiwanese’s interest in Malaysian wonders.

Under the wing of Malaysia’s booth will be a quartet of industry partners, namely Richmond Travel & Tours, Lion Travel Service Co., and Come Best Tour Ltd., alongside Malaysia’s low-cost carrier; Air Asia, that will promote and sell packages to Malaysia. To entice visitors, Malaysia will also showcase distinctive cultural performances by “Selendang Perak”, a group of creative cultural arts in dance and music of various cultures and genres representing Malaysian society and culture.

To maximise the impact of this promotional effort, Tourism Malaysia will also engage with local universities, right after TTE, to share its wealth of cultural offerings with the public, particularly Taiwanese students, as part of experiential learning and cultural exchange opportunities. To top it all off, a special consumer event called Malaysia Truly Asia Travel Carnival, which will highlight many aspects of Malaysia’s uniqueness, will be held at Songshan Cultural and Creative Park from 7th to 9th June 2024, where visitors will be able to sample Malaysian cuisine, participate in cultural events, and grab special discounts on tourism packages to Malaysia.

Mr. Manoharan Periasamy, Director-General of Tourism Malaysia, stated, “Taiwan has been Malaysia’s important source market, and Malaysia received a total of 283,380 tourists from Taiwan last year alone. This market has been identified as one of the potential source markets for Malaysia due to its outstanding performance in 2023, where it showed a remarkable growth of 488% compared to 2022. Robust promotional initiatives would be an excellent way for Malaysia to attract more tourists from Taiwan. All these efforts will make a significant contribution towards the success of Visit Malaysia 2026”.

Malaysia is targeting to woo 27.3 million international tourist arrivals with a contribution of RM102.7 billion (USD22.82 billion) in tourism receipts in 2024. Currently, there are 73 direct flights from Taiwan to Malaysia, and Tourism Malaysia is expecting exponential growth from the Taiwan market, including the North Asian region.