by DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, April 30: The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC) is intensifying efforts to capture the lucrative Middle Eastern tourism market by exploring strategic collaborations with industry leaders VFS Global and Orient Travel.
In a Facebook post today, its Minister, Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing, said during recent meetings with these companies, they discussed their complementary strengths to enhance Malaysia’s competitiveness in the Middle Eastern tourism market and to attract more travellers from the region to visit Malaysia.
During discussions with VFS Global, which operates visa application centres across 150 countries, the Minister highlighted key aspects of Malaysia’s tourism offerings, including wellness tourism, diverse arts and culture, Muslim-friendly facilities through the Islamic Tourism Centre (ITC), and business event capabilities via the Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB).
“By complementing each other’s resources, we can reduce human oversight and enhance the overall ease of travel for inbound and outbound visitors,” he said.
VFS Global’s business scope includes visa processing and tourism-related services. It provides a one-stop service for visa processing, such as Visa Label Notification (VLN), electronic visa (eVisa), Electronic Travel Registration & Information (eNTRI), Overseas Visa Centres (OSC), biometric services, and more.
The company also offers extensive tourism promotion expertise through its experience with collaborating with tourism boards worldwide.
“They are confident that they can help not only strengthen Malaysia’s existing markets but also open new ones. They are also prepared to design targeted campaigns for specific initiatives, such as Visit Malaysia Year 2026,” Tiong added.
Meanwhile, in a meeting with Orient Travel, both parties agreed that there remains significant room for growth in promoting Malaysian tourism in the Middle East, particularly given the high spending power of travellers from the region.
“We had an enthusiastic discussion on ways to deepen tourism collaboration, including social media campaigns, petrol station advertising, and golf tourism.
“I also expressed my hope that we can finalise a joint promotional plan by the end of May in order to capture the peak travel season in July,” he said. – DayakDaily
