 |
From designer labels to high-street fashion and streetsmart shopping, everyone can strike a good bargain and take pride in ‘shopping till they drop’ in Malaysia with its year end sales back again. The ongoing 1Malaysia Year End Sale (1MYES 2013) which will continue till January 4, 2014 provides visitors and locals unbelievable discounts, bargains and promotions. Positioning Malaysia as a duty-free shopping destination for tourist goods is one of the three entry point projects (EPPs) which have been undertaken to increase shopping receipts to 35 per cent by 2020, under the Malaysia Tourism Transformation Plan (MTTP). Furthermore, this move is part of the Malaysian government’s efforts to enhance the country’s position as a destination for duty-free shopping.
Kuala Lumpur has been ranked as the second best shopping destination in Asia Pacific by Globe Shopper Index, a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit based in Switzerland and was also ranked as the fourth best shopping city in the world in a survey by CNN Travel. Some of the famous malls which every shopaholic must visit are Bukit Bintang Kuala Lumpur City Centre (BBKLCC), Pavilion KL, Suria KLCC and more.
In order to highlight the destination’s tourism offerings, Tourism Malaysia recently launched the 1 Malaysia Year End Sale 2013 (1MYES 2013) in Kuala Lumpur wherein about 200 trade and media delegates from 23 countries were present for the Mega Familiarisation programme. Addressing the gathering, Noraza Yusof, general manager, Kuala Lumpur Tourism Action Council said, “We want to change the image of Kuala Lumpur from a transit destination to a four-day holiday destination. We are trying to create new tourism product offerings. We are looking at introducing a new destination – Sungai Penchala where travellers can experience real Malay life. For the luxury segment we will be offering Kuala Lumpur helicopter city tours. We have two helicopters which will start operations early next year.”
 |
|
Y B Dato
|
Last year the destination received 25.03 million travellers and by next year it hopes to touch 28 million travellers. Dato Abdul Khani Daud, director of advertising division, Tourism Malaysia said, “Our aim is to bring in more tourists to uplift our economy. In 2012 we received US$ 19 billion and by 2020 we aim to increase our tourist numbers to 36 million and earn a tourism revenue of US$ 55 billion. Our source markets include: Singapore, Indonesia, China, Thailand, Brunei, India, Phillipines, Australia, Japan and UK.”
YB Dato Seri Mohamed Nazri bin Abdul Aziz, minister of tourism and culture, Malaysia informed, “This year’s 1MYES 2013 is more exciting with sale discounts ranging from 30-70 per cent and other offers from more than 2,000 retail participants this year. It was great to kickstart 1MYES 2013 with special showcase of British and Malaysian fashion labels during the Kuala Lumpur fashion weekend. Shopping is an important revenue generating sector for the travel industry. On the international shopping scene, Brazil Russia, India and China are known to be shopaholics and the shopping tourism trend is being driven from luxury products. In terms of outbound growth of shopping spending – China is leading with 15 per cent and Asia Pacific countries are projected to dominate shopping tourism with India, Vietnam and Taiwan showing significant increase. Shopping tourism is a booming sector and Malaysia intends to tap this potential. We have shown great success in retail and tourism sector, especially with our year end sales campaigns. In 2012, shopping revenue registered was RM 18.56 billion, an increase of 5.5 per cent from 2011 which was 17.5 billion. Shopping constituted about 30.7 per cent of total tourist expenditure in 2012 compared to 30 per cent in 2011. Shopping malls have been second biggest share of tourist expenditure after the accomodation sector, making it a lucrative sector for Malaysia’s tourism industry. I am confident that Malaysia’s shopping tourism will continue to grow rapidly in the coming years on the back of increasing promotional activities by the government and private sector.“
 |
 |
Malaysia will be hosting the Visit Malaysia Year (VMY) in 2014, and an endangered animal, the proboscis monkey, as the mascot. Malaysia hopes this will instill interest among travellers to appreciate nature as a national tourism asset.
