Matta Fair September 2015 will be held from the 4-6 September at PWTC or Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur and after a successful Matta March event, many visitors are looking forward to what the September travel fair will have to offer as this is one of the crucial events that will sell travel packages for the year end holidays.
Most travelers would choose long haul destinations at the year end as this is the longest holidays for the school children and also the best time to travel based on statistics over the years. Travelers will pre-plan their holidays and vacations to places such as Europe, Australia, America and East Asia like Korea and Japan. another plus point in traveling at the end of the year is the winter season in most of the regions. Again, Malaysia in in the tropical zone where many never experience the winter season.
International Travel Packages at Matta Fair September 2015
Visitors to the Matta Fair September 2015 will have a lot of travel choices from the many travel agents participating here. Before buying any travel packages, visitors will have the luxury of visiting the country tourism boards who participate here and give out general information. One of the very popular ones are the Japan National Tourism Board or JNTO who is always very aggressive in promoting Japan to Malaysians.
In the Matta March 2015, JNTO had brought about 22 vendors to promote the many regions and services of Japan and first time around, there was even the Tokyo Metro Subway System and Visit Shibuya which was heavily trying to promote Tokyo as a destination to visit. Others include the many railway companies that provide access throughout Japan. The JNTO only offers these vendors to provide information and not sell Japan Travel Packages at the Matta Fair.
Anyone wanting to buy Japan Travel Packages are required to visit the Malaysian Travel Agents in Hall 1 of the Matta Fair. Based on the first day of the Matta Fair March 2015, I could not help but notice that the Japan Tourism Board was in fact the busiest section of the international hall here.
One of the main reasons is that Japan is very open to Muslim travelers to Japan and has upgraded many places with halal facilities in many Japanese cities. There are even guides on halal food and mosques around Japan which makes this country one of the most desirable destinations for Muslim travelers.
With this kind of promotion strategy, other tourism boards also provide similar information while some even have games and food or drink sampling. What caught my attention is that some of the tourism boards bring along airport and transport boards from their respective countries to enhance the visitor experience in getting complete information.
Popular tourism boards to visit are Indonesia Tourism, Taiwan Tourism and Korea Tourism as they seem to be the most active in engagement with the consumers at the fair. Other tourism boards seem to be conservative and only provide information via brochures or speaking to the staff there. Let us hope that this will change soon.
Malaysia Travel Packages at Matta Fair September 2015
In the last couple of years, Tourism Malaysia has taken an active role at Matta fair where they have an entire floor (Hall 4) dedicated to just domestic travel featuring many Malaysia travel packages. Visitors to the Matta Fair September 2015 will most likely have to enter the fair via hall 4 which is one floor higher than the usual hall 3 entrance.
Upon entering, visitors will be mesmerised by the sheer size of the hall with hundreds of booths promoting Malaysia. Here, you will also find all the state tourism booths giving out information on each individual state. In Matta March 2015, popular tourism booths included Sabah Tourism Board, Sarawak Tourism Board and Selangor Tourism where activities were conducted apart from information. New player Melaka Tourism was seen with a creative booth offering a variety of things to see and do around Melaka.
Walking around the Malaysia Hall will easily keep you busy for about 2-3 hours if you are seeking a local Malaysia travel package from the many travel agents here. Each offering all kinds of holiday experience ranging from Eco tourism, Agrotourism, Luxury Packages around Malaysia, Budget Packages, Diving Packages, Homestay Experiences and more.
The Sabah Tourism booth was seen to be offering very different and unique tours especially for the newly launched Best of Borneo Holiday Packages which was launched at Matta Fair March 2015. A 'Sabah Cooking Tour', a 'Mystical Land Below the Wind Tour' and a photography package called 'A Journey Thru My Lens Tour'.
This simply goes to show that Sabah Tourism and Tourism Malaysia Sabah has been very creative to come out with unique and special packages to attract tourist here.
After all these years, many travel agents always prefer to play safe and offer the same old standard tours where prices keep dropping but for the general tourist, they want something new and exciting. I can only hope that others see this and possibly do something different for the next Matta Fair in September.
Theme Park Packages at Matta Fair 2015
Theme Parks in Malaysia seem to be very popular where they are offering value deals for couples and families. These theme park promotion tickets and packages are also only available during the Matta Fair and you will see players like Legoland Malaysia, Hello Kitty Town, Tambun Lost World, KL Bird Park, Bukit Gambang Water Park and even new player Angry Birds Theme Park in Johor booths aggressively promoting at the travel fair.One of the new theme parks to look out for in 2016 is the all new 20th Century Fox Theme Park in Genting which is slated to open mid to late 2016. Apart from that, there are many other interesting ones like the Eco-friendly Escape Theme Park in Penang and a number of other which are also scheduled to open in 2016.
Hotels and Resorts Packages in Malaysia
Hotels and Resorts in Malaysia are also seen actively promoting their premises to the visitors where you can buy promotional rooms or villas in advance. Most of the time, you can simply make a booking in advance with them. Some of the hotels and resorts, especially those near theme parks or attractions may also offer alternative tours in their packages so it is best to check with them.Cruise Packages at Matta Fair September 2015
A growing trend in holidays, many are now looking towards cruise packages around Malaysia and even Southeast Asia. Cruise companies like Star Cruises and Costas Cruise are seen actively promoting the local Malaysia Cruise Packages where you can choose many departures from Singapore, Port Klang or even Penang.Usually the cruise packages come in 2-5 day trips which include full board and have special offers when you buy 2 or more persons per package. However, if you are not a sea person, then you should look for other types of packages that suit your travels.
Social Media, Travel and Tourism in Malaysia
I have already highlighted a number of tours and travels in this article and as a travel agent or tourism business, you can easily piggyback and ride on my article to promote your package by simply linking it to your website. See how simple it is?Not enough? Why don't you try doing a Google, Yahoo or Bing search for the word 'Matta Fair 2015 Promotion Packages' and see the search results in page one. This is just to show you the power of digital and social media versus conventional media.
September Matta Fair 2015
Travel booths at the international hall
Matta Fair September 2015
Date: 4 - 6 September
Time: 10.00 am - 9.00 pm
Venue: PWTC, Kuala Lumpur
Booths: Over 1000 booths participating
While the industry awaits the updates on the next travel fair here in Malaysia, you can be sure that the fair will have even better travel deals and packages due to the year end holidays here in Malaysia. I will provide updates on anything new and interesting once the news is out. The recent Matta Fair 2015 in March was seen promoting heavily on domestic tourism in Malaysia apart from Malaysia Airlines being the official airline for the travel fair.
Any travel agents in Malaysia who would like to be featured here in this article or in other Matta Fair Promotion Packages for Sept 2015, you are welcome to contact me anytime. This offer also goes out to airlines, tourism boards, hotels and resorts who plan to participate in the Matta Fair September 2015.
