Visa and Tourism Malaysia Enter into Strategic Partnership to Grow Tourism to Malaysia

Visa Malaysia has entered a long-term partnership with Tourism Malaysia to support the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC) in driving inbound tourism and promote Malaysia as a preferred travel destination.

Datuk Musa Hj. Yusof, Director General Tourism Malaysia delivering his speech.

In the spirit of Visit Malaysia 2020, Tourism Malaysia and Visa mark an important partnership to drive inbound tourists, and drive Malaysia to be a preferred destination for travel especially in shopping segment.

Shopping in Malaysia is considered one of the popular tourist activities due to the favourable exchange rates, quality of products, and diversity of choices. According to Tourism Malaysia, for the past four straight years, shopping was the biggest share of tourist expenditure for Malaysia, taking up 35.2 per cent of the total tourist receipts in Jan-Sept 2019 at RM 23.3 billion. This showed an increase of 14.4 per cent compared to 2018. 

L-R: Tuan Syed Yahya Syed Othman, Director of Package Development, Tourism Malaysia; Datuk Musa Hj. Yusof, Director General of Tourism Malaysia; Ng Kong Boon, Country Manager of Visa Malaysia; Jason Puah, Head of Business Development, Visa Malaysia; Azrin Azlina Anuar, Senior Director Government Engagement Southeast Asia, Visa.

Visa will be harnessing its data analytics capabilities and research to generate useful traveller insights. Through collaborative co-creation with Tourism Malaysia, this will help to transform tourists’ travel experiences when they visit Malaysia.

The partnership will also leverage on Visa Preferred Merchant Programme (VPM) which features a variety of rewards and benefits popular amongst tourists visiting Malaysia. The benefits include dining, shopping, family entertainment and medical wellness offers for Visa cardholders. These benefits will be shared through Visa and Tourism Malaysia’s digital media and distribution channels globally. In addition, Visa will also help to promote domestic tourism in collaboration with Tourism Malaysia’s Cuti-Cuti Malaysia campaign and share a variety of offers that are relevant for local Visa cardholders.

Datuk Musa Hj. Yusof, Director General Tourism Malaysia (left) and Ng Kong Boon, Country Manager of Visa Malaysia sealing a long-term strategic partnership to drive inbound tourism and promote Malaysia as a preferred travel destination.

Present at the signing ceremony was Datuk Musa Hj. Yusof, Director General Tourism Malaysia. He said, “MOTAC and Tourism Malaysia have embarked on several efforts to promote Malaysia as a must-visit tourism destination and we want to provide a conducive environment for businesses in Malaysia to drive and boost tourism growth. With Visa coming on board as a preferred payments partner to help promote Malaysia as a tourist destination, we are confident that we can attract more inbound tourists and enhance their experiences here in the country.”

“Visa is excited to collaborate with Tourism Malaysia to promote Truly Asia Malaysia. This strategic partnership is a milestone for both Visa and Tourism Malaysia. Malaysia has many outstanding travel spots, and we want to help achieve Tourism Malaysia’s goal of becoming one of the world’s top tourist destinations. We are able to leverage our analytics capabilities to provide insights on travellers visiting Malaysia and our extensive global network to further help Tourism Malaysia promote Malaysia as a leading tourist destination in the world,” said Ng Kong Boon, Visa Country Manager for Malaysia. 

Ng Kong Boon, Country Manager of Visa Malaysia delivering his speech.

“In addition, Visa has more than 3.4 billion cards worldwide, and enabling our cardholders to make full use of their privileges when they travel using our preferred merchant programme is important to us,” added Ng Kong Boon.