Tourism Malaysia Partners With Visa To Boost Tourism Industry

Alex Cheong Pui Yin

12th March 2020 - 2 min read

International and local tourists travelling in Malaysia with Visa cards will soon be able tap into a variety of rewards and benefits as Visa Malaysia has entered a long-term partnership with Tourism Malaysia. This is to boost the country’s tourism industry and to assist in the Visit Malaysia Year 2020 (VMY2020) initiative.

According to the director-general of Tourism Malaysia, Datuk Musa Yusof, the partnership will further promote Malaysia as a popular shopping destination among international tourists, especially since shopping has been the biggest tourist expenditure in Malaysia in the last four years. According to statistics from January to September 2019, 35.2% of the total tourist receipts are shopping-related expenses, with the total amount coming up to RM23.3 billion.

“With Visa coming on board as a preferred payment partner to help promote Malaysia, we are confident that we will be able to attract more inbound tourists,” said Musa. The partnership will leverage on the Visa Preferred Merchant (VPM) programme, which offers a range of dining, shopping, entertainment, and medical wellness benefits that are popular among tourists visiting Malaysia.

Additionally, the partnership will promote domestic tourism via the Cuti-Cuti Malaysia campaign, offering deals that are relevant for local Visa cardholders.

“Domestic tourism is important. Even before the Covid-19 outbreak, we have already done our promotions for the locals to cultivate local tourism, plan vacations, and so on,” said Musa. He also cited data from 2018, saying that more than 72 million domestic tourists had generated revenue of more than RM62 billion in that year.

Musa further commented that the collaboration with Visa Malaysia will be beneficial as the payments technology company can harness its data analytics capabilities and research to help Tourism Malaysia better understand travellers’ needs.

“We need data. Technology is changing, we want insights into the expenditure pattern and before the tourists arrive (in Malaysia) we already have the data. This way, we can devise our programme more orderly with the help of industry players,” said Musa.

(Source: The Malaysian Reserve)

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Alex Cheong Pui Yin

Previously covered recruitment-related stories and had a short stint as a copywriter for the property industry. She subsequently developed an interest in investment and robo-advisors.

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