Taking a different approach to boost national tourism, Tourism Malaysia has entered into a strategic collaboration with talent management agency ‘The Girls Republique’ to promote tourism destinations and products in Kelantan and Pahang.
Through the ‘Kembara Cuti-Cuti Malaysia’ programme, The Girls Republique (TGR) with its 12 social media influencers, under the auspices of the agency, will visit Kelantan and Pahang for seven days to produce social media content and promote interesting tourist destinations in the two states.
Tourism Malaysia director-general Datuk Dr Ammar Abd Ghapar said the programme, among other things, aims to inspire Malaysians, especially the younger generation such as Generation Z and Millennials to be more active in travelling within the country and boost domestic tourism.
“In Kelantan, among the tourist locations that will be visited are the Kelantan State Museum, Street Art Kota Bharu, Kampung Kraftangan, Pantai Senok and Pantai Nusuk, while in Pahang, the highlighted tourism activities involve the Cherating area to watch fireflies and explore the mangrove swamp forest other than surfing.
“Apart from the planned events, The Girls Republique participants will also make several interesting stops along the way, thus making their visual experience more meaningful and exciting with some elements of surprise during the holiday,” he said after flagging off the TGR convoy for the travel programme at a petrol station on the Karak Highway near here today.
Ammar said Tourism Malaysia’s collaboration with The Girls Republique is expected to be the best approach to tourism promotion due to the clout of social media influencers who have many followers on social media.
“These influencers (in the programme) have more than 10 million followers, so imagine the publicity that can be gained. Their influence will not only encourage people to travel but will indirectly give more exposure to tourism products in Kelantan and Pahang more effectively,” he said.
In a related development, Ammar said Tourism Malaysia is targeting the arrival of 16.1 million tourists with a revenue generation of RM9.2 billion for this year.
“For the first quarter of this year, we have received the arrival of 4.5 million tourists… with that performance, we expect to be able to get 18 million (on an average count), more than the original target.
“That doesn’t take into account the second and third quarter of this year yet, where the third quarter is usually the summer holidays, many people will be on the ‘go’, and for the fourth quarter year-end holidays, there is Christmas and so on, before the cold season holiday… Hopefully, we will obtain more than the target,” he said.
Source: BERNAMA News Agency
