FRANKFURT, March 25 – Tourism Malaysia’s new Frankfurt director will not only reach out to the tourism and travel trade but also directly communicate with the German consumers through a reach-out strategy that aims to add to the shine of Malaysia’s image as an attractive tourist destination.
Maizan Ahmad, who assumed the post of director of Tourism Malaysia’s Frankfurt office just two months back, said she would not just promote business-to-business contacts but also sharpen the consumer awareness about Malaysia’s attributes as an attractive destination that would especially appeal to German tourists.
“It is equally important to directly communicate with the German consumers who are known to be passionate about foreign travel, and experience new lands and cultures,” Maizan said in an interview with Bernama.
German tourists spent a mind-boggling 65 billion Euros (about RM262.3 billion) during 2012 on travel and tourism-related activities, according to Maizan.
“German tourists are among the world’s top spending-tourists. Indeed, travel is an important part of a German’s life. Germans are trend-setters.
“But Germany is also a challenging market. There has been a shift in the ranking of Germany which was until a couple of years back the second highest source of tourism traffic to Malaysia, behind the UK, in Europe.
“Meanwhile, Germany has been overtaken by France in terms of tourist arrivals in Malaysia … while 131,277 German tourists were clocked in Malaysia in 2012, we received 136,172 French tourists visited Malaysia in the same year.
“In 2011, we had 124,670 German tourists visiting Malaysia compared with 127,980 French tourists,” Maizan said.
“One possible reason for the surge in French traffic could be the air connectivity. AirAsia operated a daily flight to Paris until early 2012, in addition to the daily flight operated by Malaysia Airlines,” she explained
adding that in contrast, MAS operates only five flights a week to Frankfurt.
“Consequently, our strategy is to also work with foreign airlines which operate flights to Malaysia through their hubs, even though these are not direct flights which German tourists usually prefer to take,” she said.
But she is also planning to intensify contacts with German tour and travel operators and also going to break into a niche segment — the upper-market segment — in the area of luxury travel and lifestyle. Also on the cards are several events planned in Germany in connection with the Visit Malaysia Year 2014, which would include organising familiarisation
tours for travel and tour operators as well as the media.
BERNAMA
