The Hindu Business Line : Tourism Malaysia eyes MICE market with road show

THE Deputy Director General, Tourism Malaysia, Mr Mirza Mohammad Taiyab Beg, on Tuesday expressed concern that the travel agents had decided to stay away from Tourism Malaysia road show to protest against the bank guarantee imposed by the Malaysian High Commission.

(In February this year, the Malaysian High Commission in India had imposed a bank guarantee of Rs 3.5 lakh on travel agents as a safeguard against travellers overstaying in Malaysia.)

Mr Beg said immigration authorities in Kuala Lumpur would take a final decision on the matter.

He said this (bank guarantee) was a pilot project introduced in Chennai to bring in efficiency and would later be extended to other cities. This system will also be introduced in other South Asian countries, he said.

Mr Beg, who was speaking at a tourism promotional road show, said that Tourism Malaysia plans to spend $2.5 million this fiscal to back its campaign to tap the growing Indian MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) market.

The campaign "Meet and Experience-Malaysia Truly Asia" was launched in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.

Mr Beg said the key objective of this campaign and the road show is to provide a comprehensive insight on destinations such as Kuala Lumpur, Langkawi, Penang, Malacca, Sabah and Sarawak.

Mr Beg said Malaysia achieved a 153-per cent growth in MICE arrivals from India and announced special incentive schemes for corporates to organise MICE in Malaysia.

In 2001, Indian arrivals for MICE were just 7,351 which grew to 18,608 in 2003. This made India the eighth largest contributor to the MICE market.

Tourism Malaysia will offer special incentives to enable Indian companies and trade associations to host MICE events in Malaysia. These include preferential airfares, special accommodation and transportation rates and facilitation on custom and immigration clearances and special discounted rates on various convention centres.

Event organisers can enjoy a financial incentive in the form a special discount ranging from 5 to 20 per cent contributed by the supporting private partners which include hotels, convention centres, transport facilitators and even organising contractors.