- 7 weeks ago
How are Malaysians planning their holidays in 2026? From affordable trips and domestic travel to eco-tourism and unique experiences, the way we travel is changing.
As Malaysia gears up for Visit Malaysia 2026, how is the industry preparing to meet changing traveller demands? And what should consumers know to get the best travel deals while staying safe?
Catch the conversation on AWANI Pagi.
As Malaysia gears up for Visit Malaysia 2026, how is the industry preparing to meet changing traveller demands? And what should consumers know to get the best travel deals while staying safe?
Catch the conversation on AWANI Pagi.
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NewsTranscript
00:08Terima kasih kerana menonton Awani Pagi bersama saya, Nur Shazwani Safusyam.
00:13Di Awani Pagi, hari ini kita bercakap tentang industri peringkatan Malaysia yang berharap melihat berkembang, terutama dengan visit Malaysia 2026.
00:23Sama-sama, cara peringkatan Malaysia juga berubah dengan lebih banyak orang yang mencari untuk penggunaan, digital, dan penggunaan dan penggunaan
00:33-penggunaan.
00:34Jadi, apa yang peringkatan Malaysia sangat mencari hari ini dan bagaimana industri peringkatan peringkatan peringkatan ini?
00:44Dan bagaimana MataFair dapat membantu Malaysia untuk mencari peringkatan peringkatan yang lebih baik?
00:51Jadi, bersama kami hari ini, di Awani Pagi, kami berbincang dengan Presiden Malaysia Association of Tour & Travel Agents, Mata,
01:00Mr. Nigel Wong.
01:01Dan juga, Presiden Presiden, Mr. Mohd Hizad Mohd Shah.
01:06Selamat pagi, bagaimana kamu semua hari ini?
01:08Saya berbincang dengan baik. Terima kasih kerana bertanya.
01:09Terima kasih kerana bersama kami hari ini.
01:12Mungkin kita boleh mulakan dengan MataFair dulu.
01:15MataFair akan kembali dan saya yakin banyak orang Malaysia sangat mencari peringkatan peringkatan ini.
01:20MataFair, bagaimana kamu boleh beritahu kami tentang bagaimana MataFair mencari peringkatan peringkatan peringkatan peringkatan peringkatan Malaysia?
01:28MataFair untuk mencari peringkatan besar.
01:33MataFair mengambil masa yang sebarang manfaat.
01:34MataFair akan terima kasih dalam masa depan.
01:38MataFair untuk beritahu seperti yang kamu bergerak untuk memaingkankah,
01:43lainnya, nanti selanjutnya,
01:44ia mencari peringkatan peringkatan peringkatan.
01:45Sermetukannya di dalam masa depan adalah peringkatan yang suatu yang dihitung.
01:55MataFair sepatugas akan berulang bersama untuk beberapa yang sangat mencari peringkatan di mana MataFair.
01:58MyTek, that's three levels, about 40,000 over square meters, 2,000 over booths, we've got about
02:05more than 300 over exhibitors. So choice is the word of the day, right? Secondly, it's going to
02:13be value. So when we set up the Mata Fair, it was to make sure that consumers had a place
02:18to go
02:19to get travel packages that were high in value. Not all cheap, there's some very nice luxury
02:26trips as well. But whatever you get, you can find an element of value in it. And last but not
02:31least,
02:31we made sure we're always at the top because we want to foster trust in industry. So when you come
02:37to the Mata Fair, exhibitors are all fully licensed. So no scammers on board, don't have to worry about
02:44unfulfilled promises or packages that are unrealised. Come buy and shop with trust.
02:51Okay. So you are saying this is the largest fair above all additions. So maybe Injil Hizad
02:58can tell us more on how does Mata itself adapting for what travelers want nowadays, their preferences
03:07such as what I mentioned just now, the digital ecotourism experience base. So is that part
03:15of what you are going to be published or organised this year? We are helping our members adapt to
03:23how travelers want to discover. If you're talking about the digitalisation, we are encouraging our
03:29members to adopt digital tools and AI. As we know now, we are living in the AI world. Everything
03:35is done by AI. The itinerary, the program, everything. Also as we know that travelers also, before they
03:41ask travel agents, they will ask AI first. If they want to go, where's the best food they
03:45can find everywhere. And where's the nice place. Normally they will ask AI before us. But
03:50that's why we also encourage all the Mata members to adopt the digitalisation. Number one. Number
03:57two, if you're talking about the ecotourism and experiential travel, we also supporting the
04:01members in developing more diverse product around ecotourism, wellness, adventure, culture, community
04:07based and rural tourism as well. And also we are focusing on the niche market. Just for
04:13information that we also have another platform. We call it Mata Muslim Friendly Travel Fair,
04:19MFTF. That one is really targeting niche market, the Muslim friendly. Because as we know, the
04:24research said that after 2030, the Muslim traveler is increasing by 20%. I mean that's a good
04:32target for the visitor. Okay. So meaning there's everything for everyone. So maybe we are talking
04:42about visit Malaysia 2026 that has been expanded to 2027. So the government have targeted 47 million
04:52international arrivals and 329 billion ringgit in revenue. So how does Mata itself preparing to support
05:02this and also how does the Mata Fair could contribute to that? Okay. So Mata's membership actually
05:09comprises of travel agents and tour operators from all aspects of the industry. Many of us are actually
05:16inbound operators, meaning that what we do is we service not only markets coming in from other
05:23countries to Malaysia, but we also support local travel as well. Now during the pandemic especially,
05:29there was this huge renaissance in terms of people traveling within Malaysia and travel agents
05:34and tour operators were actually at the forefront of that, you know, encouraging people to visit places
05:39that we've never even heard of before. And many of the tour operators have also started diversifying and
05:45creating their own attractions and their own products as well. And so Mata is an association. We
05:50assist by helping them channel or open up channels for them to, you know, promote and sell their
05:58different packages and experiences. Now the Mata Fair takes that to another level. Remember I said we have
06:06three levels in MyTech. The entire ground floor is dedicated to what we affectionately term is
06:14Chutti Chutti Malaysia, right? Downal Malaysia. But it's grown to such an extent that we literally
06:21have to set aside a full floor for this. And so, you know, we've got a lot of new products.
06:29The
06:30different state organizations come in to promote things that are new that's happening within their
06:34state. And every fair, we see something that we haven't seen before. And so that's how we support local
06:41tourism in the Mata Fair. Now, just to give you a bit of fun facts, okay. On average, we do
06:49anywhere
06:49between 30 to 60 million in sales for that weekend, only for domestic tourism. So that is one of the
06:58huge, you know, motivators that the Mata Fair is when it comes to promoting domestic tourism.
07:05Okay, so that is how Mata is going to support Visit Malaysia. And of course, it's not this fair,
07:11it's the travelers that counts as well. So maybe, we've seen how travelers nowadays are very critical
07:20in choosing their places, especially if the place is considered as viral. How does Mata also respond to this
07:30search of domestic traveling? And also, how does you work with your members to make sure those places
07:38that are viral also in their list? Okay, we want Mata Fair also to inspire Malaysians to travel
07:47not only further, but closer to home. As we know, we still use the same tech line, Malaysia is truly
07:53Asia.
07:53If you are looking anything in Asia, that's what's here, in Malaysia. We have everything in
07:59Asia, we have in Malaysia. That's why we want it to encourage all the traveler, you look what you
08:04have in your country first, before you look abroad. Yeah, because if we are talking about the foods,
08:10what the food we don't have in Malaysia? Exactly. We have Korean food, Japanese food,
08:14you want Italian, you want pizza, you want pasta, everything is here. That's why, because we are multi-culture.
08:21Mata also, we are focused more on domestic travel. This time, like Mr. President said that we
08:27allocate one specific floor only for domestic. Also, for this edition, we have one program campaign,
08:38we call it S-Pro and Win. That one is we put domestic travel front and center with participating domestic
08:44holiday package and accepting price, including Honda Dash Motorcycle and the local, local voucher,
08:50travel voucher. Also, we directly support the Tutti Tutti Malaysia program. We are working very close with
08:56Tourism Malaysia. Also, for this program, campaign S-Pro and Win, we are doing a joint campaign with
09:02the Tourism Malaysia. We are working very close with them to support and to help them to increase the
09:08domestic travellers. Mr. Nigel, you've mentioned the ground floor is going to be all about domestic
09:15travelling. Okay, what about the second and third floor? Just to let the people know what it is about.
09:22Okay, so on our second and third levels, this is where all our outbound travel is located.
09:28There are some pretty impressive displays there as well. The Malaysian Aviation Group has a huge boost,
09:34right up on the third level. And many of the well-known household names are all based in level
09:41two and level three. You know, caters for all walks of life, you know. And I think for level two
09:50and
09:50three, visitors can expect this, and I say in a good way, okay, they can expect this assault on the
09:56census. You know, everything that you can think of in any part of the globe that you want to go
10:01to,
10:01there are packages and experiences that are available for them. Now, one of the key things to
10:08note, of course, is that this year we have a lot of interest from countries coming to promote their
10:17own individual destinations. So there's a huge variety there. We've got countries from Central Asia,
10:23Asia, we've got them from the Far East. We've got countries from states, different states from
10:29our provinces from China coming. So Taiwan as well will be there, Japan, Korea. So when travelers come,
10:37it's not just about purchasing the packages alone, but even looking forward, you know, engaging with these
10:44promotional boards to see what else, you know, they can put on their radar for future travel as well.
10:50Okay. Okay. It's really something for everyone. But when we're talking about something for everyone,
10:56of course, the budget for every travellers is part of every travellers' concern. So maybe,
11:03Encik Khizat, can you explain, adakah isu seperti kenaikan harga bagi setiap package itu,
11:13it's part of the challenge, part of as what Mata is concerned about?
11:19Yeah. We're talking about the value of money. There is it because we know everywhere the increasing of
11:27especially the petrol and diesel. But the people still needs. Now the travel is a need.
11:33It's a need. That's why they will close one eyes for that. But yeah, at Mata Fair,
11:41because Mata Fair, we have a variety package. Then they can choose within their budget. Let's say
11:46they come to Mata Fair with RM5,000. It's easy to find a package for RM5,000. We have about
11:51300
11:52exhibitor. You can choose anywhere within your budget. If you got your budget more than
11:57it would be better. But every package we have there. Do you have something to add on?
12:03Well, the interesting thing that we've seen happening, the trends that is, is that most,
12:09many visitors to the fair, they tend to buy multiple holidays. So what they tend to do is,
12:15because of current, you know, the current situation, and even post pandemic, even before,
12:21you know, this thing happened in the Middle East, we've seen people sort of say,
12:25okay, look, I'm going to purchase more holidays domestically, because we've got
12:30school holidays, right? And we've got long weekends, right?
12:34Every public holiday is long weekend.
12:36Yeah. You know, God bless Malaysia for that, right?
12:39So they tend to purchase a combination. They will purchase a couple of domestic holidays,
12:45and then they will also look at maybe a trip or two regionally for those who really need to get
12:49out
12:50of the country. And some of them will still maybe plan a long haul trip, you know, at least once
12:56a
12:56year. So this is the time where they come and they go on a shopping spree. They save money in
13:03the
13:03process, and they plan the holidays for the next six to 12 months.
13:08Okay. So the whole year, you can plan where you want to go, where you want to travel, especially
13:13domestically. Okay. As we know also, the travel content and also booking now, people can make it
13:24through social media, especially on these big social media platforms because there's
13:31there's agent everywhere. So how does Matafair sort of like compete with it to make sure that
13:41you're saying Matafair, it's a platform that is protected and also the guarantee that you will be
13:48giving to your travellers? Okay. So I think the important thing to note here is that the
13:53Malaysian tourism industry is governed by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, which means
13:58it's regulated. So anybody without a license technically is operating outside the law. And when
14:04they operate outside the law, there is no protection for the consumer if something happens. Whereas if you
14:10work with a travel agent or tour operator, you can hold somebody accountable should the unthinkable
14:17that will happen. Okay. Right? So almost all travel agents are insured in one way or another.
14:24They are trained to handle emergency situations. And the service goes beyond just saying, hey,
14:30we'll refund your money if something goes wrong. We've been in situations before where there is a medical
14:36emergency overseas or there, God forbid, is a death. For example, the travel agent services go beyond that
14:43to help you on your travels find ways to make sure that you are taken care of. So that's just
14:51one aspect.
14:52Now, the second aspect is everybody can claim to be an agent. But in terms of the Malaysian industry,
14:58an agent must be licensed. Now, why are there so many scams happening out there in all areas?
15:03right? It's because more often than not, packages touted by independent agents or individuals or
15:12foreign companies, especially operating outside the Malaysian environment, they often come across as
15:18very cheap. And the phrase here is too good to be true. So when you find something that's really
15:25unbelievable, you know, something should click and say, hey, you know, I got to check this out. Maybe,
15:30you know, one in one doesn't equal to two here, right? So do your research. If you're purchasing
15:36outside, even on social media, check them out, make sure they have a premise, make sure you can call
15:42them, you know, go visit them if you need to and make sure you're safe that way. But in answer
15:47to your
15:47question, if you don't want to go through all that hassle, go to the Matafair, because they're all licensed.
15:53Yeah. And then you can just go through whichever locations that you want and then you can just
15:59straight up and ask. Okay. So that is guaranteed. Okay. Now, additional questions about this Matafair,
16:05and I'm sure every year you guys have this data where which destination is most popular every year.
16:13Maybe Mr. Hizad, this year, what are the trends look like, especially domestically?
16:18If you're talking about domestic, the government also worked very hard to push all the domestic
16:24spots. Of course, of course. Especially because we have a very nice island. We have Semporna. We have,
16:29yeah, even Olangkawi also now is a bit down. But the government also encouraged because our view of our
16:38island also is still on UNESCO because it's very beautiful. Yeah. Sometimes if we just post the pictures,
16:46people will think, oh, this is maybe overseas. In Greece. Yeah. But actually Malaysia. But that's
16:53why the awareness is most important in the travel industry. That's why we also work very close
16:58with the tourism industry, tourism minister to help them to awareness which spot with destination that
17:05we need to highlight. Yeah. Really depending on travelers where they do want to visit, especially in Malaysia,
17:13like you said, we have long public holidays and also we have different seasons as well.
17:18Yeah. Okay. So when we talk about international travelers also, are we ready? Is the tourism industry in
17:28Malaysia really ready to handle more and more international travelers, Mr. Noeja? Look, in short,
17:36we're ready. But we can always do better. And I think this is what the minister has also been
17:42pushing, right? The other thing which needs to happen also for tourism in Malaysia to really succeed
17:47is that there has to be a whole of government approach. We can't just rely on the Ministry of
17:53Tourism to push tourism as it is because tourism has multiple touch points, right? City councils need to
18:02make sure cities are fit for walking, they are safe, they're brightly lit and all the necessary
18:07comforts and services are in place. The Ministry of Transport needs to make sure that, you know, tourism
18:15vehicles and transport infrastructure is as seamless as it possibly can be. The standards upheld to a
18:23a high degree, you know, and that roads are generally safe for travelling. You've also got the
18:32other ministries, even though they may not seem like they are directly related, like the Ministry of
18:37Digital, for example, being able to help the industry foster, you know, more applications or platforms
18:45that allow our stakeholders to reach out to the rest of the world as well, right? So it needs a
18:51whole of
18:51ministry approach. And I suppose at the end of the day, our goal here is to try and drive tourism
19:00traffic, spread them out as much as possible. When we do that, then different areas which have not seen
19:07so much tourism development will start to gradually grow, develop and improve. And this is how we make
19:15Malaysia, the destination as a whole, a much more exciting one. And in the process, it'll help us
19:22build the capacity and infrastructure to handle these tourists. Okay. Of course, we are expecting
19:26international travellers to be here in Malaysia. And of course, us Malaysians also like to visit other
19:33countries, especially Southeast Asia. Mr. Isat, is there any specific trends where Malaysians like to go,
19:41especially internationally and also amongst Southeast Asia? Indonesia and Thailand is of course a must.
19:48But is there any specific or new destinations that the Malaysians prefer to go to? Okay. For this
19:55coming Mata Fair, our favourite destination is Taiwan. Okay. Because as we know, Taiwan is, they started to
20:02focus on the Muslim friendly. That's why we will see the few years back, their tagline also is Salam
20:09Taiwan. It's really targeted. When we see the Salam words, it's really targeted the Muslim
20:14traveller. And they're doing very well for that. Yeah. Then their market, they really needs a market
20:19for Muslim traveller. That one's Taiwan. But we also, if you're talking about this, the incoming Mata Fair,
20:26we have a few NTOs also coming. We have Korea, we have Japan, we have Indonesia for sure.
20:31Yeah. It's like Warniaburg. And then Thailand is there. And then also we have a bit far. We have
20:36Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and all that. But if you're talking about the the travel trend,
20:43we cannot describe. But if you're talking about the because of the budget, they are more preferred
20:49than Southeast Asia. Because we know that the flight long, more, more far you go, I mean the price is
20:57more expensive. Yeah. It's going to double from the normal price. That's why they're looking for
21:05Asian. It's easy. And then the price is still okay for them to choose. Yeah. And it's not so much
21:13of a
21:13difference in terms of the way we eat, the way we live. So almost the similarities is what the
21:23travelers are looking for. Of course, we know Visit Malaysia is expanding to 2027. And of course,
21:31Mata would see so many challenges by time, right? Especially this year, after one another,
21:39especially after the conflict between US, Iran and also, you know, all these sort of places that
21:49actually produce a huge number of travelers. Until 2027, Visit Malaysia, is there any more
21:57challenges or any critical challenges that you guys are trying to overcome? I think we have reached the
22:03point where we can't really expect what's going to happen next, right? So we've seen this when the
22:10pandemic hit. And that was, I think, the first major disruption to the world economy and travel economy.
22:16And then after that, this issue in the Middle East, you know, that has come up. We had another
22:22one, which was the Ukraine. All right. So but to somewhat a lesser extent affecting us. But we can't
22:28really sort of determine or foresee what's going to happen next. One of the challenges now, of course,
22:34is the widespread use of AI, you know, and social media channels as well, which is good. But it also
22:41has
22:42its downside as well. You know, media gets spread a lot faster and misinformation goes out as well. So
22:50I think one of our challenges moving forward in the future, something that we can foresee,
22:54is how do we work within the new technology environment that we are seeing now growing at such
23:03an exponential rate. But long story short, the travel industry has proven to be very resilient
23:11and robust. And so as we've experienced in the past, if we hit a roadblock, we just find a way
23:17around it.
23:18Okay. And that's what is going to happen, you know, every year. Okay. Uh, Mr. Izak, you mentioned about
23:25the campaign where travelers can win. Yeah. Motorcycle. Yeah. Motorcycle, yeah. And the travel voucher. Okay. And
23:33several vouchers. Uh, is there any specific, um, or unique attraction this year for Matafet? Yeah. You just come and
23:42buy any domestic package. Okay. You are entitled to, to get that spin and win. Okay. Other than that,
23:49is there any new things that you guys are trying to highlight? Uh, actually this time we are for,
23:55if we are talking about the ads advertising, we are focusing, uh, we are spending a lot on the advertising
24:01and we are spending a lot for the domestic advertising as well. Yeah. Because we really want to,
24:06to, to focus, uh, go to help the, the Malaysian to achieve the visit Malaysia year. 2026
24:14and 2027. Yeah. Okay. Mr. Rajah, you want to add on something? Well, if you like, I can get him
24:18to
24:18ride around the center in the motorbike. Okay. That will be new. Okay. Then I'll be there. Okay. Mr. Rajah,
24:25uh, we are
24:26coming to an end now. Um, maybe you can tell us more, uh, what role can Matafet, uh, play, especially
24:34in promoting
24:34Malaysia as a preferred destination to both local and also international travelers? Okay. So I think,
24:40uh, uh, for starters, uh, Mata is the largest, uh, national travel association around. It's, uh, we've
24:47got, uh, close to 2,500 companies, all of whom, uh, travel agents and tour operators fully licensed. And
24:54that number covers a huge spectrum of all types of travel services, right? So, uh, where Mata comes
25:02into the picture is we function as an enabler. Uh, as you can see from the Mata Fair, we have
25:07very
25:08close relations with a lot of, uh, government officers and our counterparts overseas as well.
25:14And so one of our key functions here is to connect the dots, right? We connect our people and our
25:21destinations and our attractions to our counterparts overseas and vice versa. And what that does is
25:28the volume of travel and interest and, and, and exposure generated from such relationships
25:35cannot be measured, you know, in a number, but we do see them in terms of the amount of arrivals
25:41coming
25:42in, the number of people that we as travel agents to operators personally handle. Um, so on that note,
25:49Mata is more than just the Mata Fair. Many people don't know this. We are a trade organization.
25:54And the reason why Mata Fair is as big as it is, is because for the 51 years that Mata
26:00has been in
26:01existence, we've built on those relationships year after year after year. And the Mata Fair is one of
26:09those success stories that comes as a result from this long-term relationship.
26:14And I'm sure every, um, Malaysians are really looking forward for Mata Fair. So again, I think I might
26:20have missed, um, the details on when and where you've mentioned my tech. So when is Mata Fair is going
26:27to happen?
26:28Okay. Mata Fair is going to happen from 4 to 6 September. Okay. Yeah. From 10 to 8. Yeah. And
26:33then, uh, for this time,
26:35I think every time if you are talking about the Mata Fair, the visitor will think about the hustle of
26:39the traffic.
26:40but no worries. This time we have about 24 buses shuttle. It's a free from KL Central and from
26:47Sanwiputra. Oh, yeah. We have a dedicated lane for that buses. I mean you are coming as a VIPs.
26:53You guys visited as our VIPs. We provide, we provide a free shuttle buses. Every five minutes,
27:00you just park your car at Sanwiputra area or you can park at KL Central. We give you the buses.
27:06you less hustle. You don't start on the traffic. Yeah. So it's not necessary. You have to park at
27:11Mata. You can even park in KL Central and also Sanwiputra. They can take the shuttle buses to go to
27:17Mata. Okay. Is there any last word you want to say, Mr. Nigel? Well, all I can say is if
27:22you turn up to the
27:23Mata Fair this year, uh, you will not be disappointed. Uh, there's plenty of choice, plenty to offer.
27:29and, uh, we have a very interesting stage program. Lots of performances. We have visiting
27:34artists as well. Yeah. So, um, even if you're not coming here with the intent to buy a package,
27:40come here, uh, come to the Mata Fair for, uh, for, uh, for a fantastic time this, this coming weekend.
27:45Okay. So if you want to spend some time, Rika, you can go to mytech.kl from 4th to 6th
27:52September from
27:5310 a.m. to 8 p.m. Okay. 9 p.m. Okay. Or more details you can find out from
28:00their media social
28:00platforms, including Instagram. Okay. Thank you both, um, Mr. Nigel Wong, President, Malaysian
28:06Association of Tour and Travel Agents on Mata, and the Deputy President, Mr. Mohamed Hizad Mohamed Shah.
28:12Thank you for being here with us today. And I guess that's all for Awanipagi. I'm Norsha Zwanisa Fushan. See
28:18you.