Tourism Malaysia and Traveloka have tied up for a smart partnership campaign to promote the country as the holiday destination of choice. The campaign invites individuals to enjoy Malaysia's multicultural attractions, scenic locations, diverse cuisine and renowned hospitality, which will exclusively harness Traveloka's travel and lifestyle platform.

The campaign ends on 31 December 2022 and will also provide consumers with redeemable offers and promotions from Traveloka, to enable them to book holidays. Both parties are targeting Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and the domestic market within Malaysia for the campaign, with an average booking target of 39,500 until December.

The move aims to increase the number of holiday bookings and support tourism recovery efforts, with the collaboration coming at a time when Malaysia sees an uptick in domestic and regional post-pandemic travel after the lifting of international border restrictions. This is also in line with the government's plans for tourism recovery announced in Budget 2023 shortly before parliament was dissolved.

Finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said that RM1 billion will be allocated for tourism recovery, including hotel rehabilitation, urban renewal, and heritage conservation. A further RM200 million will be set aside for promotion and marketing. 

The campaign is also in line with Tourism Malaysia's Strategic Plan 2022-2026, which sees the agency focusing on partnerships to promote the use of digital technology. Additionally, the fully-online experience will encourage the middle class to book stays in Malaysia via Traveloka's core travel offering and its comprehensive suite of products and services.Tourism Malaysia, has set a target of 9.2 million international tourist arrivals this year. 

"Forging smart partnerships with industry players is crucial to boost the recovery of the tourism sector. They are the backbone of the industry, and by working with influential brands and unicorns like Traveloka, we record higher tourist arrivals, maximise resources and elevate our distribution channels to promote Malaysia domestically and regionally,"  Zainuddin Abdul Wahab, director general of Tourism Malaysia said.

"Tourism Malaysia will continuously work hand-in-hand with our partners to ensure domestic tourism demand returns to its pre-pandemic levels of 2019 as early as the fourth quarter of 2022," he said.

Meanwhile, Traveloka Malaysia's country manager, Angelica Chan, said the company has always supported the government's efforts toward tourism recovery. "We are extremely pleased to collaborate on this smart partnership campaign with Tourism Malaysia and simultaneously reinforce our position as one of Southeast Asia's leading travel and lifestyle platforms," she said.

She added that working closely together, they aim to exponentially increase the number of bookings via the features available on Traveloka's platform, and help locals and regional visitors fulfil their lifestyle aspirations and needs, whether it's enjoying authentic Malaysian cuisine, attractions, wellness and spa, or every other experience that defines our unique country.