FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY

HO CHI MINH CITY CAMPUS

MID-COURSE INTERNSHIP REPORT

Major: External Economics

MARKETING ACTIVITIES IN
MALAYSIA TOURISM
PROMOTION BOARD

Internee: Tran Nguyen Hoang Minh

Student ID: 1101017205
Class: K50CLC2
Supervisor: Phung Minh Duc

Ho Chi Minh City, April 2014

 TABLE OF CONTENT
Chapter One: INTRODUCTION TO MALAYSIA TOURISM PROMOTION
BOARD ......................................................................................................................... 2  
1.1 The development of Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board ................................ 2  
1.2 Functions of Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board ............................................. 3  
1.3 The important role of marketing to tourism ....................................................... 4  
1.4 Tasks done during internship period ................................................................... 5  
Chapter Two: MARKETING ACTIVITIES IN MALAYSIA TOURISM
PROMOTION BOARD DURING 2011 TO 2013 .................................................... 6  
2.1 Marketing Activities in Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board from 2011 to April
2014 ............................................................................................................................... 6  
2.1.1 Growth speed of number of Vietnamese visitors ............................................. 6  
2.1.2 Vietnamese Tourists’ to Malaysia trends ......................................................... 8  
2.1.3 Segmentation, target audiences ....................................................................... 11  
2.1.4 Main promotional activities ............................................................................. 12  
2.1.5 The activities of writing PR contents .............................................................. 15  
2.2 General comments on Marketing Activities ...................................................... 17  
2.2.1 Achievements..................................................................................................... 17  
2.2.2 Drawbacks ......................................................................................................... 18  
2.3 Comparisons to the theory .................................................................................. 19  
Chapter Three: THE OUTLOOK, ORIENTATION DEVELOPMENT AND
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PROMOTION/IMPROVEMENT OF THE
MARKETING ACTIVITIES IN .............................................................................. 22  
MALAYSIA TOURISM PROMOTION BOARD ................................................. 22  
3.1 The outlook of the Marketing Activities in Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board
..................................................................................................................................... 22  
3.1.1 Opportunities .................................................................................................... 22  
3.1.2 Threats ............................................................................................................... 22  
3.2 The development orientation of Marketing Activities in Malaysia Tourism
Promotion Board ....................................................................................................... 23  
3.3 Solutions................................................................................................................ 24  
CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................... 28  
 LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

No Table, Chart, Figure Page

Figure 1.2 Administrative organization structure of Malaysia
1 04
Tourism Promotion Board Vietnam
2 Chart 2.1 Vietnam tourist arrival to Malaysia from 2011 to 2013 06
Chart 2.2 Vietnamese tourist arrival to Malaysia from January to
3 07
April 2014
4 Chart 2.3 Vietnam tourist arrival to Malaysia quarterly 2011-2013 08
Chart 2.4 Vietnamese tourists to Malaysia’s travel purposes
5 09
during 2011 to 2014
Table 2.1 Number of Vietnam tourists to each Asia countries (data
6 10
by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Vietnam)
Chart 2.5 Genders distribution of TOURISM MALAYSIA Booth
7 11
visitors during Ho Chi Minh Tourism Festival 2014
Chart 2.6 Ages distribution of TOURISM MALAYSIA Booth
8 12
visitors during Ho Chi Minh Tourism Festival 2014
 1
 
PREAMBLE
Malaysia is a country located in Southeast Asia. This large area with
unique features attracts large number of tourists from all over the world. Because
of its large area it, Malaysia has focused on exploiting three unique attractions:
The first is the multi-cultural and multi-ethnical characteristics, with several
communities living together in harmony, namely consisting of Malay, Chinese,
Indian, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu ethnic groups. Secondly, due to its extreme
cultural diversity, the cultural cuisine in Malaysia is plentiful, which makes
Malaysia on the road of becoming one of the crossroads of the top cuisines in the
South East Asia. Since Malaysia is home to many fascinating destinations with
natural landscapes and terrains ranging from modern cities to unspoiled lands, or
from romantic beaches to high-mountain areas. In addition to Malaysia, you can
also enjoy a convenient traffic network, a system of wide highway that stretches
across the country and connects this country with Singapore, Thailand, railway
services and international airports of all sizes that will bring you to many cities.
Moreover, thanks to the visa-free policy for 30 days travel in most Southeast
Asian countries, the number of tourists to Malaysia has been increasing more and
more in recent years.
• The importance of promoting the image of Malaysia to Vietnamese
tourists.
• The problems needed to be solved in parallel with promoting tourism such
as illegal immigration through travel routes.
• The lessons Vietnam tourism can learn from Malaysia to promote national
tourism.
• Structure of the dissertation, 3 parts including:
Part 1: Introduction to Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board
Part 2: Marketing activities in Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board
Part 3: The outlook, orientation development and recommendations
for promotion/improvement of the Marketing activities in Malaysia
Tourism Promotion Board.
 2
 
Chapter One: INTRODUCTION TO MALAYSIA TOURISM
PROMOTION BOARD
1.1 The development of Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board
Tourism Development Corporation of Malaysia was formed on 10 January
08 1972, is the specialized agency of the Ministry of Trade and Industry before.
After the establishment of the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Tourism on 20 May
05 1987, Tourism Development Corporation Malaysia started to operate in this
new ministry called the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board. Which is known
briefly known as TOURISM MALAYSIA, the agency focused entirely on
promoting Malaysia at the domestic market and worldwide.
TOURISM MALAYSIA's objective is to promote Malaysia as an
outstanding tourist destination. We aim to showcase Malaysia's unique wonders,
attractions and cultures; develop domestic tourism and enhance Malaysia's share
of the market for meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE). Our
ultimate goal is to increase the number of foreign tourists to Malaysia, extend the
average length of their stay and so increase Malaysia's tourism revenue.
TOURISM MALAYSIA aims to encourage tourism and its related
industries in Malaysia. It is hoped that this would help promote new investments
in the country, as well as provide increased employment opportunities. The
growth of tourism would also contribute positively to the country's economic
development and quality of life.
General information of the organization
• Name of organization: MALAYSIA TOURISM PROMOTION
BOARD
Consulate General of Malaysia in Ho Chi Minh City
• Abbreviated name: TOURISM MALAYSIA
• Address: 1208 Me Linh Point Tower, 02 Ngo Duc Ke, Ben
Nghe Ward, District 1
• Logo
 3
 
• Tel: +848 3825 8036/ 38258011
• Fax: +848 3825 8037
• Website: www.tourism.gov.my
Achievement and milestones:
-­‐ May 2013 - The most well designed booth in “Taste of the
World” Culinary Festival 2013
-­‐ 12nd September 2013 – Office moved from 139 Pasteur to 02
Ngo Duc Ke
-­‐ 26th March 2014 - The 2nd Runner Up in Designed Booth
competition Ho Chi Minh Tourism Festival.
-­‐ 18th April - Appreciation of Culture and Tourism Minister on
Appreciation Luncheon.
1.2 Functions of Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board
• Stimulate and promote tourism to and within Malaysia;
• Invigorate, develop and market Malaysia internationally and
domestically as a tourist focal point;
• Coordinate all marketing or promotional activities in relation to
Tourism, conducted by any government or non-government
agencies or organizations;
• Make recommendations as to the methods, measures and
programs to be adopted to facilitate and stimulate the
development and promotion of the tourism industry in Malaysia.
1.2.1 Tasks of Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board
Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board operates in Vietnam with the sole
purpose of providing information for the travel agents, airlines, media
organizations, and media, etc. to help spread the Malaysian tourism products to
travelers Vietnam, thus boosting the demand to travel Malaysia of Vietnam
tourist.
Organization structure and human resource management
 4
 
Figure 1.2 Administrative organization structure of Malaysia Tourism
Promotion Board Vietnam

Director/Tourism Attaché

Vice Director

Marketing Manager (Hanoi) Marketing Manger (Ho Chi

Overseas Office Minh)

Marketing Executive Marketing Executive

Receptionist Receptionist
(Source: TOURISM MALAYSIA)
The organization structure of Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board Vietnam
follows the principal of functional departmentalization. Even though the whole
board in Vietnam mainly serves as a marketing department, the functional
departmentalization model still work fine in not only differentiate the slightly
distinguish function of overseas office in Hanoi and marketing rep office in Ho
Chi Minh city.
TOURISM MALAYSIA human resource has a total of only 8 people,
which includes 2 are Malaysian, the rest are Vietnamese. All of them are at least
bachelor-degreed. The ratio of male over female is 1:3, which is suitable for a
service related organization.
1.3 The important role of marketing to tourism
Tourism ranked number 4 in the top of the most important industries in
Malaysia. By 2020, the tourism industry strives to rank in number 2 industry.
Malaysia strives to achieve all three goals, which includes increase visitor
numbers, increase income from visitors and increase length of stay of visitors.
Since 1990, the Malaysian tourism industry has developed the "Visit Malaysia
 5
 
year” and brought a great success, attracting 7.4 million tourists came to
Malaysia, up 2.6 million compared with 1989. Continuing this success,
deployment Malaysia Tourism Year 2nd Malaysia in 1994. On the occasion of
the 50th anniversary of Malaysia's independence in 2007, the 3rd year TOURISM
MALAYSIA was held under the theme "Celebrating 50 years of the nation." With
more than 200 events and 50 major programs taking place across the country
throughout the year, Malaysia Tourism Year with the slogan "Malaysia Truly
Asia" attracted 20.97 million visitors, bringing in total revenue of 46.1 billion
ringgit.
By these above evidence, we can conclude that marketing play an
significant and essential role in Tourism. Tourists are usually attracted by what
they can and may see, feel, touch, watch, taste, etc. in the future. So the marketing
plays as the role of a bridge for tourist to understand better about the destination
that they will explore, about the attractions that they will experience. Tourism
itself cannot develop without marketing. In spite of how many attractions a
country may have, without marketing, no one can know about those places, so
this is just forever a “hidden charm”.
1.4 Tasks done during internship period
During my 3 months internship (now extended duration to 6 months), I
was not only coached but also appointed to do several paper works and handle
some step of events. The coaching procedures include PR contents writing,
customer relationship enhancement and event planning. Following is some main
tasks I have done during my internship period:
Marketing tasks: Create PR content, translate PR content (media release)
into Vietnamese and vice versa, administrate Facebook Fan Page, take part in
TOURISM MALAYSIA programs, events, contact and negotiate with celebrities
for endorsement, compose cooperation plan and work with potential media, travel
agent cooperators.
Admin tasks: scanning, sending contract to contractor, Hanoi office.
Communication tasks: working with the performer team from Malaysia
during the events.
 6
 
Chapter Two: MARKETING ACTIVITIES IN MALAYSIA TOURISM
PROMOTION BOARD DURING 2011 TO 2013
2.1 Marketing Activities in Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board from 2011 to
April 2014
2.1.1 Growth speed of number of Vietnamese visitors
Chart 2.1 Vietnam tourist arrival to Malaysia from 2011 to 2013
235700  
211008  

173783  

Vietnam  Tourist  Arrival  

2011   2012   2013  

(Source: TOURISM MALAYSIA)

In general, Vietnam tourist arrival to Malaysia has been recorded a
continuous rise from 2011 to 2013 in number. The average tourist arrival increase
speed is 20% per year. The increase speed enormously increased in comparison to
the previous period. This is, indeed, a very impressive number in the situation of
world economic crisis has been struck every corner since 2008.
There are many reasons for this pleasant result. Firstly, there were many
new flight lines and increase in flights from big cities in Vietnam such as Ho Chi
Minh city, Hanoi and Da Nang. Not only new flights had been opened but also
the development of low cost carriers such as AirAsia and promotion programs of
Vietnam Airlines and Malaysia Airlines. For example, through my internship
period (which started since September), there have been 6 promotion programs by
AirAsia which includes 3 in conjunction with the launching of new lines from Ho
Chi Minh city to Johor Bahru and Da Nang to Kuala Lumpur.
 7
 
Secondly, recently, Malaysia has been strongly invested in tourism such as
building new shopping malls, theme parks, infrastructure like subways, sky trains
make much easier for tourist to enjoy their experience there.
Thirdly, due to the great demand of visit Malaysia and the country’s attractions,
many tourist agents opened new tours from Vietnam to Malaysia in integration
with Singapore or Malaysia only. This is two-side beneficial and effective for
those travel agents, their customers and Malaysia.
Finally, the promotion of TOURISM MALAYSIA had its effectiveness
since many programs, events were warm-welcomed by not only targeted
audiences but also the word-of-mouth has its function too.
In summary, the accomplishment is due to the great effort of the Ministry of
Culture and TOURISM MALAYSIA and TOURISM MALAYSIA in general but
also TOURISM MALAYSIA Vietnam and counterparts.
In term of ranking, Vietnam tourist arrival number usually ranks in the top
15.
Chart 2.2 Vietnamese tourist arrival to Malaysia from January to April 2014

30000  

25000  
Tourist  Arrival  

20000  

15000  

10000  

5000  

0  
January   February   March   April  
2014   18245   23839   23123   22210  
2013   12912   17846   19375   19979  

(Source: TOURISM MALAYSIA)

The tourist arrival data has been updated for the first 4 months of 2014.
Based on the data and as seen in the chart, Vietnam tourist arrival to Malaysia
always increased in comparison to the same month of the last year (2013). But in
general, the year of 2013 had a tendency of increasing while 2014 was a mild
 8
 
downfall from February. Even though there was a significant increase from
January to February (from 18245 to 23839) due to the demand for travelling
during Tet holiday in Vietnam, the period of February to April witnessed an
unusual decline. There are probably two possible main reasons for this decline.
First of all, the demand for travelling might dropped lower after Tet holiday
ended, plus there was not much of a recovery sign in economy which affect the
budget of tourist caused the tourist arrival to fall. Secondly, the incident of
MH370 on 8 March somehow made tourist question their safety while travelling
by airway to Malaysia since the Vietnamese are superstitious to some extent.
However, this is just temporary, the fact that the campaign Visit Malaysia Year
2014 (VMY 2014) had been launched since 2014 will definitely boost the tourist
arrival with many festivals, sale seasons during the year.
2.1.2 Vietnamese Tourists’ to Malaysia trends
Chart 2.3 Vietnam tourist arrival to Malaysia quarterly 2011-2013
66473  
70000   62649   62597   60907  
56510  
60000   53034  
50133  
50000   45769   44997  46133  
41621  
40000   34131  
30000  
20000  
10000  
0  
Quarter  1   Quater  2   Quarter  3   Quarter  4  

Year  2011   Year  2012   Year  2013  

(Source: TOURISM MALAYSIA)

The Vietnam tourist arrival to Malaysia quarterly follows these rules:

There is always a sharp increase from quarter 1 to quarter 2 every year.
The reason for this raise is the Tet holiday. During Tet holiday in Vietnam
(usually fall into the end of quarter 1, start of quarter 2), the demand for
travel goes high.
 9
 
There is an increase in from quarter 2 to quarter 3 but not as sharp as it is
from quarter 1 to quarter 2. Because this season of the year falls into
summer time, most of students have free time and demand to travel.
However, only students have free time during this season, the office men
are still at work.
Unfortunately, students are barely financially capable of travel; especially
travel abroad so the increased number is not as high.
There is always a fall at quarter 4, because there are not many holidays in
this occasion. Moreover, people tend to save up for Tet holiday so travel demand
decreases.
Chart 2.4 Vietnamese tourists to Malaysia’s travel purposes
during 2011 to 2014

Shopping  
4%  
13%  
Eco,  history  travel  

Sport  travel  
38%  

Business  trip  combines  with  

33%   travel  

Holiday  

8%   4%   Honeymoon  

(Source: TOURISM MALAYSIA)

The main purpose of Vietnamese tourists to Malaysia is shopping, which
makes up to 38%, then followed by Sightseeing, history travel (33%). The reason
for that is because the Vietnamese always consider Malaysia, along with
Singapore and Thailand, are the heaven for shopaholics. Moreover, the fact that
sales season is all available during a whole year in Malaysia acts as warm
welcomed wave of hands for tourists to the country for shopping. Besides, despite
Malaysia geo location being close to another shopping heaven – Singapore,
 10
 
bargainers still flock to Malaysia for their seasons. Firstly, goods in Malaysia are
considerably much cheaper than ones in Singapore. While shoppers go to
Singapore for authentic luxury items, bargainers go to Malaysia for great deals.
Secondly, Malaysia is way more diversified in term of cultures and religions,
which lead to more exotic items that cannot be found anywhere else. However,
the percentage of Honeymoon travel is surprisingly low which proves that not
only Malaysia is still not a top-of-mind couple destination for Vietnamese but
also reflect the low effective of the promotion on honeymoon travel by
TOURISM MALAYSIA.
Table 2.1 Number of Vietnam tourists to each Asia countries (data by
Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Vietnam)
No Country 2011 2012 2013
1 Cambodia 514.289 614,090 763.136
2 Thailand 496.768 618.670 787.301
3 Singapore 332.231 366.234 294.725
4 Malaysia 173.783 211.008 235.700
5 China 100.650 113.720
6 Korea 105,000 92.413 99.799
7 Japan 41.048 55.156 84,400
(Source: TOURISM MALAYSIA)
Malaysia is consistently ranked as number 4 in top Asia travel
destinations. Consider the fact that Cambodia and Thailand, which ranks number
1 and 2 orderly are both near Vietnam and being cheap places, the achievement of
Malaysia should be acknowledged.
Besides, the gap between Malaysia and its direct competitor - Singapore,
which used to be very big (158.448) in 2011 has been shrunk. In 2013, the gap is
only 59.025. It indicates that now Vietnamese tourists are considering Malaysia
as an equal attraction to Singapore, unlike before just only a humble substitute.
Moreover, the number of Vietnam tourist to Malaysia has been
continuously raised since 2011 to 2013 while there was a downtrend for
Singapore market. That makes a great sense that the marketing activities have
their great power. During recent years, the image of Malaysia has been getting
closer to Vietnamese audiences.
 11
 
2.1.3 Segmentation, target audiences
Typically, the segmentation of TOURISM MALAYSIA Vietnam is who
aged ranged from 25 to 44 with average income from B (middle class) is
reasonable because those are who capable of travelling abroad, in both term of
financial requirement and maturity. However, according to the fast growth of
Vietnam economy and living standard, the age range should be broadened in the
future since many more young teenagers are now able to travel abroad and the
retired want to spend their leisure time travelling.
So the target audiences for the events are the same as the appointed
segmentation. Reality also fits with this segmentation since people who are most
interested in the program of TOURISM MALAYSIA Ho Chi Minh. For example,
the Ho Chi Minh Tourism Festival 2014, main audiences are students, office men
and those of the same age range.
As recorded in TOURISM MALAYSIA booth during 3 days of Ho Chi
Minh Tourism Festival (26 to 29 March 2014), there are approximately 400.00
visitors.
Chart 2.5 Genders distribution of TOURISM MALAYSIA Booth visitors
during Ho Chi Minh Tourism Festival 2014

47%   Male  
53%   Female  

(Source: TOURISM MALAYSIA)

The ratio of male and female is approximately 1:1 which reflects that both
men and women are interested in travel, especially to Malaysia. The slightly
different may due to the fact that women are more likely to be attracted by visual
 12
 
contents, which TOURISM MALAYSIA was doing perfectly during HTF 2014.
From this fact, there is a assumption that even though maybe men are prone to
make decision on whether to travel (in the case of couples) but women are to
decide where they want to go since they are more interested in the promotion.
Chart 2.6. Age distribution of TOURISM MALAYSIA Booth visitors during
Ho Chi Minh Tourism Festival 2014

2%  2%  

6%  

Under  15  

From  15  to  30  

From  30  to  40  

From  40  

90%  

(Source: TOURISM MALAYSIA)

The age range of majority of visitors to TOURISM MALAYSIA booth
during Ho Chi Minh Tourism Festival 2014 is from 15 to 30. This age range is
younger than the targeted age range of TOURISM MALAYSIA (25 to 44). The
reason for this situation may due to the fact that people who aged from 15 to 22
are usually students having more time to attend such events like this (even some
of them return to receive gifts from the booth) but their demands for travel are
comparatively vague. However, this age fall partly into the targeted age range (22
to 30). Those people are the ones who meet both criteria – true interest in travel
and have enough time to attend events. Reality shows that they indeed went to the
booth to search for more information for their upcoming trip and hunt for cheap
travel packages or airfares.
2.1.4 Main promotional activities
Firstly, the most important activity is to plan and run events: This is also
the biggest and most effort consuming activity in TOURISM MALAYSIA.
Averagely there are 3 big events throughout a year, but it varies for some specific
 13
 
year.
There are two types of events in TOURISM MALAYSIA, which are the
ones TOURISM MALAYSIA take part in and the ones TOURISM MALAYSIA
independently hold. For each type, there are some events to name a few; the first
type: Ho Chi Minh Tourism Festival 2014, International Travel Expo 2013, etc.;
the second type: Appreciation Luncheon with Vietnam Travel Trade, Visit
Malaysia 2014 Roadshow, etc.
The year of 2014, count to this moment, there have been 4 events: F1 Press
Conference, Ho Chi Minh Tourism Festival, Yan Beat Fest, Appreciation
Luncheon with Vietnam Travel Trade and 3 events on the go which are: EWEC
Da Nang (15-20/8), ITE HCMC (11-13/9), Minister’s Visit (20-26/8)
Secondly, the social media channel is also used to promote Malaysia
Tourism: Facebook Fan Page, this is where TOURISM MALAYSIA can
communicate with targeted audiences. Everyday there is a post in the Fan Page to
introduce something about Malaysia tourism, which belongs to an array of
cuisine, destinations, festivals, and culture to travel tips. There is also cooperation
with airlines in order to promote the new promotion campaign for flight to
Malaysia.
Thirdly, PR is the easiest way for TOURISM MALAYSIA to gain mass
attention: Through a PR agency, TOURISM MALAYSIA pushes its publicity by
articles prepared TOURISM MALAYSIA itself.
Finally, the activity that shows the uniqueness of TOURISM MALAYSIA
in the way it promotes Malaysia tourism is Fam Trip: This is a kind of adventure
experience that TOURISM MALAYSIA brings to selected individuals or
organizations who are in charge of promoting in media or travel agents.
Averagely, there are 6 Fam Trips every year. The destinations vary the whole
country of Malaysia. The purpose of Fam Trip is to introduce new destinations,
new adventure experiences to the travel agents so they can include them to their
new tour packages, journalist can compose new articles for their newspapers. A
Fam Trip to Malaysia usually last for 5 to 7 days, selecting guests from different
countries, usually every 5 to 10 countries send representatives to participate.
 14
 
There are also two types of Fam Trips, which are Mega Fam held by
Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board in Malaysia and Fam Trip prepared by
TOURISM MALAYSIA. For the first type, Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board
in Malaysia prepares everything and each TOURISM MALAYSIA station sends
their participants to take part in the trip. For the second type, TOURISM
MALAYSIA cooperate with airlines or travel agents to prepare the trip in order to
fit its own market segmentation.
Especially, 2014 is the Visit Malaysia Year (VMY2014), there are many
programs, festivals, and activities to support the task of attract more tourists to
Malaysia.
Since mid-2013, the first activities to promote Malaysia Tourism Year
2014 in Vietnam have begun to be implemented. The opening program is Visit
Malaysia 2014 Roadshow took place on 06 May 2013 in Ho Chi Minh City, Da
Nang and Hanoi. In particular, in Hoi An, the program was held in conjunction
with the program celebrates 5 years of cultural heritage of the locality. The
program is the total diversity among exchanges and cooperation between
Malaysia partners including tour operators, hotels, theme parks, enterprises with
travel agents and leading airlines in Vietnam. In addition, the program is
organized workshops throughout also provides full information about tourist sites
in Malaysia, as well as travel assistance policy of the Malaysian government for
Vietnam partners, and moreover, introduces business opportunities, trade
promotion, trade fairs in Malaysia.
Press conference "Car racing Petronas Malaysian Formula 1 Grand Prix
2014" was held at Rex Hotel (Ho Chi Minh City) on 14 January 02 2014 with the
main objective was to attract the attention and interest of Vietnam for the F1,
meanwhile creating buzz and promotion campaigns TOURISM MALAYSIA
Year 2014 (VMY) for Vietnamese visitors in this F1GP event. Through the
program, Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board cooperated with Vietnam travel
companies and Malaysia Airlines in introducing the F1 tour packages with
attractive and interesting rates and favor than the usual tour packages to enjoy the
exciting performances on the track F1, which seemed to arouse enthusiasm and
 15
 
inspire excitement from visitors. Also, Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board
cooperated with Malaysia Airlines to provide attractive promotions for visitors in
this season F1.
Participation in "Ho Chi Minh Tourism Festival 2014" at the Park 23/9
from 27 to 30 March in 2014: During the 4-day festival, Malaysia Tourism
Promotion Board specially focused on the unique tourism products of Malaysia as
well as positioning Malaysia as a destination not to be missed by Vietnamese
tourists. With the theme 'Malaysia - Endless fun', TOURISM MALAYSIA
introduced to visitors some of the newest international parks in Malaysia, which
is promising in bringing fun moments and endless fun for whole family. Malaysia
also appeared to be one of the top tourist destinations for summer vacation in the
Asian area with sunshine, blue sea and white sand. At the TOURISM
MALAYSIA booth, visitors had the opportunity to purchase the travel package
gained special privileges in Malaysia as well as involved in a lot of games,
puzzles and fun lucky draw to receive valuable gifts.
2.1.5 The activities of writing PR contents
In general, there are two ways of creating PR contents in TOURISM
MALAYSIA, which are writing from scratch and translating original English
texts from TOURISM MALAYSIA head quarter in Malaysia.
In term of usage, there are two main distinguished purposes of PR contents,
which are media release and promotional content in Facebook Fan Page.
“A media release, press statement or video release is a written or
recorded communication directed at members of the news media for the purpose
of announcing something ostensibly newsworthy. Typically, they are mailed,
faxed, or e-mailed to assignment editors and journalists at newspapers,
magazines, radio stations, television stations or television networks” In Tourism
Malaysia, media releases are often prepared to promote a new destinations,
festivals in Malaysia and Vietnam as well.
For which purpose the content created must be clearly defined. For
example, serving the purpose of promoting the image of 1Malaysia or Visit
Malaysia Year 2014 are the most general ideas for this year 2014. But this should
 16
 
be more detailed defined, in which category the PR content is and for whom it
will reach. For example, a few categories can be mentioned such as Malaysian
cuisine, multi-racial society, travel tips, etc. And at the end of this month, the
Ramadan month (fasting month) will start on the 29th, there should be a media
release to inform tourist about the tradition and tips for those who visit Malaysia
in this period. “
After the purpose of the PR content is clearly defined then there will be a
research to gather sufficient and correct information. That is the crucial and most
important step because this content will be on press, sometime one but most of
the time on many newspaper pages. Moreover, the image of the whole country of
Malaysia will be affected by any minor mistake. Main sources of information
come from TOURISM MALAYSIA head quarter in Malaysia. But there are
always additional or even alternatives sources of information from the reliable
source on the Internet. Then the suitable writing style should be chosen. In
general, the common writing style for media release should be formal and
informative. After the media release is done in English, it will be translated into
Vietnamese. The English version will be published on English press and send
back to TOURISM MALAYSIA for checking and archive.
Usually, Marketing Manager or Marketing Executive will be in charge of
the writing depending on the importance of the media release writes the media
release.
This is an example media release about Mega sale season promotion written by
the Marketing Manager then translated into Vietnamese by me.
Fan Page promotional contents are prepared to serve the purpose of giving
information about Malaysia travel to Vietnamese audiences on Facebook. Since
established until now, Tourism Malaysia has gained more than 61.000 fans. This
is an impressive number, ranks the highest among Tourism Malaysia Promotion
Boards around South East Asia. In order to have that result and keep the
audience, the Fan Page is usually updated, not only information but also games to
attract the fans, these are called Fan Page promotional contents. These contents
are usually a note, a status with photo or event on Fan page to draw fans attention
 17
 
and provide them official information about Malaysia. That is the reason why
these contents are usually short and straight to the point. Marketing executive or
marketing intern is in charge of this duty.
Usually Fan Page statuses prepared one week prior to the actual update
day, which are a combination of 6 contents. But according to the topicality of the
news posted on Fan Page, this can be changed any time. So basically, every week
needs it own theme, for example, destination, cuisine or festival, then the statuses
will be written based on those themes. The themes are chosen due to the
imperativeness of the information needed shared to serve the promotion purpose
of every period.
After the theme for the whole-week status package has been chosen, writing style
will be decided. Fun and charming style is favorable because those statuses will
reach young people mostly.
The English content is then translated into Vietnamese. Then a suitable
high-quality photo would be chosen to fit the content. This is an example
Facebook Fan Page status written by me.
2.2 General comments on Marketing Activities
2.2.1 Achievements
The first achievement is the message conveyed and the consistence of
activities: With the theme "Truly Asia", along with the photos, movie theme
music in advertising, rare animal mascot used and unique programs promote
culture, colorful art, tourism advertising campaign really resonated Malaysia,
national impressed by abundant natural resources, rich in culture.
The second achievement is widespread investment development on all
media channels: TOURISM MALAYSIA has been promoting strong and broad
picture of itself on television, newspapers, various social networks (Facebook,
YouTube, Twitter ...), and website ... with a variety of different languages. Thus,
Malaysia tourism can reach to the smallest niche.
The third achievement is full tourism publication, attracting: Mainly
written in English, however, the supportive publications for Malaysian tourists
are impressive because they were translated into the language of each country,
 18
 
albeit with a certain number of publications. TOURISM MALAYSIA has over
100 publications with eye-catching designs such as subway maps, maps of each
city; travel guide for individual state, region, and publication introduces each
different tourism products (shopping, golf, cycling, amusement parks, hiking,
resorts, fishing...). Thanks to the support even when they are still at home, no
surprise or difficulty is faced in Malaysia.
The fourth achievement is close relations with the media and tour
operators. TOURISM MALAYSIA has been building better relationships through
Famtrip and close activities in cooperation with press and television before,
during and after the event. Besides, TOURISM MALAYSIA also offers free-
guided tours in large numbers, the souvenir, support airfares, entrance fee to
attend some special program for passengers to Malaysia through a travel agent.
Finally, diversified tourism products: Thanks to its vast territory and
diverse terrain (mountains, islands ..), along with diverse cultures, beliefs rich,
Malaysia tourism incentives travel products unique and diverse, meet the
increasing demand of tourists and demanding world, such as shopping tourism,
sports tourism, medical tourism, business trip ...
2.2.2 Drawbacks
Firstly, tourism promotion activities are not widely provincial government.
Currently, the Malaysia tourism promotional activities only held in Hanoi, Ho
Chi Minh City and Da Nang sometimes. Meanwhile, the market still has much
potential due to the high standard of living people such as those who live in
Khanh Hoa, Ba Ria - Vung Tau ...
Secondly, lack of localized publications: Although publishing massive
quality publications every year, the product has not really useful as expected for
tourists in Vietnam because most of them are not English proficiency.
Thirdly, website is not user friendly. The main website of the Malaysia Tourism
Promotion Board has many images, clip and heavy duty applications should make
the browser load long, making it difficult for users. At the same time, because of
lacking Vietnamese so the site is still unfamiliar to Vietnamese tourists.
Finally, the choice of travel products uneven, although known as countries
 19
 
with various types of tourism products, according to the survey, tourists Vietnam
has no choice evenly between the tourism products. Mostly this kind of eco-
adventure tourism, historical and tourist resort still favored. While other types of
tourism has not really grown extensively in the Vietnam market.
2.3 Comparisons to the theory
2.3.1 Theoretical summarization
There are two main marketing theoretical summarizations, which are 7P-
marketing mix for service and localization marketing strategy.
2.3.1.17P-marketing mix for service
Usually, the model of 4P-marketing mix, which are product, price, place,
promotion is applied for tangible products (especially FMCG), but when it comes
to analyzing services (intangible products), the 4P-markeint mix has been
developed into 7P-marketing mix. 7P-marketing mix includes product, price,
place, promotion (the same as 4P-marketing) and people, process, physical
evidence.
• Product: In this case, product is service. “Service is a type of
economic activity that is intangible, not stored and does not result in ownership.
A service is consumed at the point of sale. Services are one of the two key
components of economics, the other being goods.”
• Price: There are lots of different pricing strategies but every
strategy must cover at least the costs unless the price is being used to attract
customers to the business (loss leader pricing). A product is only worth as much
as people are prepared to pay for it. The amount of target market is prepared to
pay for the products/services depend on product features and the target market's
budget. There is also a requirement to consider competitor pricing and factors
within marketing environment.
• Place: The other word for distribution. “Place” is where customer
can purchase and use the product. The place sometimes cannot be changed due
to the distinguished features of the products.
• Promotion: Promotion is any activity that boosts the image of the
brand, raise the awareness of targeted customers to the product and encourage
 20
 
them to purchase the product. There are several kinds of promotion such as
advertisement, PR, word of mouth, POSM, etc.
• People: “People” here implies human resource. Indeed, human
resource has been played an evitable and essential role in marketing in general,
especially in service and service marketing. Because “people” always perform
service, the quality of service eventually depends on the human resource.
• Process: The process of creating service and delivering to the
customer.
• Physical evidence: This is the physical infrastructure of the service,
where the product is created and also the channel of communication between
service suppliers.
2.3.1.2 Localization marketing strategy
Definition: “the process of adapting a product or service to a particular
culture, language, developing a local appeal and satisfying local needs”.
2.3.2 Similarities
In general, TOURISM MALAYSIA applies every part of the 7P-
marketing mix model to control the process of promoting Malaysia Tourism. For
example, the “Physical evidence” part, TOURISM MALAYSIA office is not only
where the staffs work but also the place to communicate with customers,
cooperators, interview settings for media data, etc.
The localization marketing strategy is apply in planning events in conjunction
with current local festivals, holidays.
2.3.3 Differences
Firstly, among differences in 7P-marketing mix, the biggest difference is
the price policy. Due to the specialty of TOURISM MALAYSIA, we are in no
authority to control the price of travel package, airway fare or so on. The prices
are on the hands of the airlines, travel agents. TOURISM MALAYSIA can only
effect the price by giving promotion package, but rarely because the strategy of
doing marketing in TOURISM MALAYSIA is to focus on holding events and
make better communications. It may be different to other countries’ tourism
promotion organizations, such as Thailand Tourism Authority, they aims at
 21
 
giving financial support to travel agents in order to lower the package price so
they have much more thorough influence on the price policy. On the other hand,
in case of TOURISM MALAYSIA, the promotion (or support) package only
comes when there is a new attraction to promote or under the special package of
HQ from Malaysia. Place in 7P-marketing mix in TOURISM MALAYSIA is also
different from theory assumption. Customers do not actually buy the service in
TOURISM MALAYSIA office but in travel agents, airlines.
Secondly, differences in localization marketing strategy, as mentioned in
the weakness part, the publication of TOURISM MALAYSIA is still limited to
English version only, just a few of them are in Vietnamese and always in the
status of out of stock. In this case, the localization marketing strategy is not fully
applied since the first and foremost important thing to get closer to local customer
is language has not been solved completely.

 
 22
 
Chapter Three: THE OUTLOOK, ORIENTATION DEVELOPMENT AND
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PROMOTION/IMPROVEMENT OF THE
MARKETING ACTIVITIES IN
MALAYSIA TOURISM PROMOTION BOARD
3.1 The outlook of the Marketing Activities in Malaysia Tourism Promotion
Board
3.1.1 Opportunities
First opportunity for TOURISM MALAYSIA is large budget for tourism
marketing, expressed by: Organizing large events throughout the year to attract
tourists to Malaysia. These activities are spread over many fields, such as
entertainment (Music Festival FMFA), sports (F1 GP Petronas), culture, cuisine,
.. Particularly in Malaysia Tourism Year 2014 there are more than 200 large and
small events taking place across the country. The large budget also help to attract
tourists to Malaysia's special events through sponsorship tickets to the big show
with high value, such as package ticket F1 GP Petronas can cost more than 2
million Vietnam dong / person
Second opportunity for Toursim Malaysia is infrastructure in the modern
big city, convenient for tourists. Specifically: In Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia's
capital, more than 5 subway and skytrain lines go to most places in the city
quickly and conveniently because these lines are so closely connected with each
other and located in or close to tourist attractions, famous shopping. The cost for
each trip is not high (average is about 10 to 15 thousand Vietnam dong depend on
the distance). Besides, tourists flew to Kuala Lumpur international airport or
airport for low-cost airlines in Kuala Lumpur are accessible easily via city bus
and transport in particular. Putrajaya - Malaysia's administrative capital is also
recognized as a "smart city" by the installation of high technology system in the
whole city from the card, at the same time, move the bus system in the city is
very convenient and cheap more so than other tourist destinations. On weekends,
tourists can tour around the city with only RM1 (about 6,000 Vietnam dong).
3.1.2 Threats
First of all, threat comes from severe competition from other countries in
 23
 
the region such as Thailand, Cambodia top attractions for the Vietnamese in the
last 2 years, with 787.301 tourist arrivals to Thailand and 763.136 to Cambodia in
2013 alone. Figure is nearly three times the number of Vietnam tourist arrival to
Malaysia in 2013 (235.700 visitors). Moreover, Singapore is also attractive
destination for tourists by shopping centers and big brand Universal Studio theme
park.
Second of all, the Malaysia Airlines crisis poses a great threat to Malaysia
tourism industry in general. The missing plane incident Malaysia Airlines MH
370 and then informed to be drop in the Indian Ocean was a major threat by the
Malaysian tourism industry. This crisis not only caused damage to airlines in
particular, but also significantly affected the tourism industry because this event
brought great confusion for tourists about safety when traveling to Malaysia.
In the situation that the incident of MH 370 is still unsolvable and remained
painful after 4 months disappeared in spite of great effort on searching, the MH
17 of Malaysia Airlines is suspected shot down in Ukraine caused the tragedy of
298 deaths. The case has led Malaysia Airlines directly to the biggest crisis ever,
which can easily makes it become bankrupt. Malaysia – vaguely become a
superstitiously unsafe destination.
3.2 The development orientation of Marketing Activities in Malaysia
Tourism Promotion Board
Currently, TOURISM MALAYSIA mainly focus on traditional travel,
which take scenery, shopping, cuisine, festivals to be the main attraction to
tourist. This is not a bad thing but someday the demand will become saturated
then there should be a new trend to exploit other resource to develop tourism.
Based on the development level of Malaysia always ranks in the top of South East
Asia, this should be an ideal place for ASEAN citizen to have their affordable
foreign campus, and a substitute.
Education tourism: Malaysia school atmosphere is well known for its
uniqueness and social interaction of different groups, as the number of institutions
increases due to the help of foreign colleges and universities so did the foundation
of the tourism industry. Currently over 50 000 foreign students are in Malaysia.
 24
 
In addition, this type of industry is not aiming to target students only but also
their families for example when they come to visit their children then that means
they will also get an opportunity to spend their holidays touring around Malaysia.
Medical tourism: health tourism existed long before during the eighteenth
century. This tourism is associated with the following, spas, places with health-
giving mineral waters, treating diseases from gout to liver disorders and
bronchitis. Doctors have highlighted the benefits of bathing in seawater, and sea
bathing, even this has become a part of health tourism. In Malaysia it was firstly
introduced in 1999, known as the Medical Health Sector. It has become popular
for its safe and mostly affordable medicine, which therefore has attracted so many
people around the world.
3.3 Solutions
Overall, besides the program by the Ministry of Culture and TOURISM
MALAYSIA, Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board proposed in Malaysia,
Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board in Vietnam needs to target strategies and
longer-term (up least 5 years) to develop Vietnam market going in the right
direction and for the right purpose. In particular, the first and most important is
the choice of market research companies to conduct the prestigious survey and
find out the needs of tourists and tourism advertising channels effectively.
3.3.1 The solution for the first drawback
In order to improve the situation of “tourism promotion activities are not
widely provincial government”, there should be a market research to identify
potential markets in Vietnam except for Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. Next
comes building up Malaysia tourism promotion program on the scene or online in
particular localities. These programs can be divided into two management zones:
north by the Hanoi office manager (from Hue to the south) and the south by the
office in Ho Chi Minh City Manager (from Hue to the north).
Raise the awareness of the Vietnamese, not only from two biggest cities
but also from other areas about Tourism in Malaysia in particular and the country
Malaysia in general. Customers acknowledge about Malaysian tourism mostly
through social media channels, or more specifically from newspapers, online
 25
 
newspapers, and television. Therefore, the need to further strengthen the
promotion of this communication channel should be a concern.
Currently, Malaysian tourism advertisements are only shown on foreign
channels. So, TOURISM MALAYSIA in Vietnam should translate the content
into Vietnamese then widely advertise them on TV channels. Besides, the
information on tourist destinations as well as big events of the year in Malaysia
should be advertised widely and more frequently in newspapers, online
newspapers and other channel. In addition, Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board
should assist tourism companies, airlines by attaching information about travel
packages, airfares on this advert.
3.3.2 The solution for the second drawback
The “lack of localized publications” problem can be solved by finding out
the difference between the tourism products of Malaysia and other countries in
the region, thereby, creating strong and distinct elements of their own to focus on
marketing and impressing visitors from Vietnam.
Increase the level of Vietnamese tourists’ access to Malaysia publication.
At the same time, it is also important to optimize the print quality and minimize
the cost for this activity. Such travel publication assistance as brochures,
handbooks on tourism products... is a superior of travel to Malaysia by the full
amount of information, beautiful images. These publications should be translated
into Vietnamese so as to help visitors easily find out the many types of tourism in
Malaysia, regardless of age, profession and at any level.
3.3.3. The solution for the third drawback
This “website is not user friendly” problem has its solution is to diversify
the types of events based on each specific tourism product to promote at the exact
target customers: customers who are interested in history, customer who like
sports, and those who love shopping.
Re-evaluate the effectiveness after an event in terms of media (number of
articles, readers and people who know about the events ...), economic (the amount
of travel packages and airfare registered ..), evaluation of participants on the
program’s quality in order to learn from experience, which is necessary for
 26
 
deciding whether to continue organizing the years after or not. This assessment
can be done by preparing a brief and properly focusing questionnaire, or
conducting interviewing any of the participants. Each answerer can be
encouraged by getting souvenirs from TOURISM MALAYSIA.
3.3.4 The solution for the final drawback
Tourism Malaysia can stop “the choice of travel products uneven”
situation by creating and maintaining Malaysia's national image of being
conscious of and responsible for nature conservation, ecology, and environment.
Moreover, there is the need to provide audiences the information of all-year-long
festivals Malaysia, perfect cities for MICE trips such as Kuala Lumpur or
Putrajaya and so on. In Vietnam, when organizing such activities it is also
necessary to pay more attention to this factor, especially in printed publications
and event organization. The images of animals and ecosystems as well as the
repertoire of cultural performances, folk art should be brought to introduce more
in Vietnam to gain visitors’ impression, and this is also a good matter of data that
can support journalists in writing Malaysian tourism promotion. However, in case
of Malaysia, while the eco-adventure tourism, historical and tourist resort are
being exploited well, festival or MICE travel should be enhanced by boosting
more aspects of Malaysia.
3.3.5 Solution for Facebook Fan Page
Based on the available subscriptions, develop the social networking sites
Vietnam TOURISM MALAYSIA to be one of the most popular sites with
travelers in Vietnam which provides really useful information for those who wish
to travel to Malaysia. Facebook is the most popular social network in Vietnam
with 74.5% of users. Then, this social media network should be important factor
to be addressed.
Currently, the promotion of information on Facebook in Vietnam
TOURISM MALAYSIA has still not been planned specifically in development
and implementation in a professional manner. Therefore, despite the fact that the
number of "Subscribers" is large (over 60,000 people), the information published
has still not been widely known among online community.
 27
 
Proposed solutions to the social media network will be as follows:
- Cooperating with companies specializing in social marketing to perform
physical tasks such as running ads (Facebook Ads and Sponsored Stories) or
organizing activities to increase awareness and fan base.
- Rebuilding the plans on posting content on Facebook. Based on the
content published, there should be more changes and variations to fit and inspire
viewers. Also, updating the latest information on TOURISM MALAYSIA (cost
reduction programs, how to travel between the cities, the fare changes...) for
customer to capture exact and immediate information is of importance.
- Openly and quickly giving answers to customers’ questions, which not
only helps travellers to get necessary information need but also provide
information for other traveler-to-be who needs them in the future. At the same
time, it is also important to create the image of the country Malaysia and friendly,
enthusiastic and warm Malaysian.
Such activities on Facebook should always be carefully planned at least 1
month before show time, and then constantly updated and should not be stopped
for any reason. Besides, it is the influencers who also contribute much to
promoting Malaysian tourism on social networking communities. At the present,
actress Dinh Ngoc Diep has been playing the role of an ambassador. However,
the obligations and roles of the actress have not been clearly planned. As a result,
Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board should develop programs for those people,
namely:
- Photos and activities to do in the events
- Theme song in Vietnamese to demonstrate in Visit Malaysia Year 2014
However, it shouldn’t be limited at one person, the affecting person may
be flexibly chosen so as to suit the Malaysia tourism’s products. For example: In
the field of sports, it is wiser to choose athletes (bicycle athletes famous golfers);
fashion icons or, a lot of other people who appear to have beautiful image
towards community (models, actors, or Miss); field of health care needs people
who is known for being healthy, supple and well aware of health.
 28
 
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, Malaysia has been doing a great job promoting the country
image to Vietnamese audiences. Malaysia now is one of the top of mind
destination for Vietnamese tourists along with familiar attractions such as
Thailand, Cambodia and Singapore. The number of tourist arrival to Malaysia has
been continuously increased thanks to the effective marketing strategies of
Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board in general in Vietnam Rep Office in
particular. However, when compared to the abundance tourism resource of
Malaysia, the potential has not been fully exploited. There are many other
magnificent places, appealing festival, exotic cuisine in Malaysia that Vietnamese
tourist are not even aware of.
During the internship in Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board, I have learnt
a lot from writing PR contents; cooperate with counterparts to run an event
smoothly. However, there are still some drawbacks in TOURISM MALAYSIA
such as lack of people so sometimes the jobs to be done are overloaded. The
social media channel is not exploited to the fullest of its advantage. I hope in near
future, TOURISM MALAYSIA will have a professional market research
company to get a full observation of the tourism pie in Vietnam to reach even
more targeted customers, then an advertisement company or at least a specialized
staff to use the power of social media since this is the strongest but also cheap
channel to reach mass audiences.
I would like to thanks Ms Minh Duc for guiding me to finish this report,
all teachers in FTU in general and particularly Ms Hai Thuy and Mr Giang Nam
for providing me with academic and up-to-date marketing theories, also
TOURISM MALAYSIA staffs, especially Ms Vinh Hai, Ms Ai Nhu and Mr
Huynh Vu for helping me to achieve a useful internship period. I strongly believe
in the future development of TOURISM MALAYSIA as the role of guiding
customer taste to help Malaysia reach top attraction for the Vietnamese.
  
APPENDIX
Table 1 Number of visitors per each TOURISM MALAYSIA program

TIME PROGRAM NUMBER OF VISITORS

June 2013 Visit Malaysia 2014 Roadshow 1000 visitors
International Tourism Expo HCMC 18.300 visitors
Opening Ceremony of Malaysia Travel
170 visitors
September Week
2013 Malaysia Food and Culture Festival
1.660 visitors
“Malaysia Taste”
Youth Tourism Promotion 2.000 visitors
October
and The Opening of Year End Sale Season
2.500 visitors
November 1MYES
2013
December “Taste of the World” Culinary Festival
400.000 visitors
2013 2013
45 visitors (media
February Press Conference “F1 Petronas
representatives, travel agents,
2014 Malaysia Grand Prix 2014”
etc.)
March
Ho Chi Minh Tourism Festival 300.000 visitors
2014

Example 1: Media Release

NATIONWIDE HAVEN FOR BARGAIN HUNTERS
Shopping and travel are never apart and tourists traveling to Malaysia IN 2014
are in for the best treat, ever. Ranked the world’s top four shopping destination by
CNN Travel 2012 and the second best shopping city in Asia Pacific by The
Global Shoppe Index 2012, Malaysia offers its best retail therapy to bargain
hunters.
  
One of the three major shopping seasons in the country is back with mega
shopping excitement, dining options, endless entertainment and fun-filled
activities! This time around, with the Ramadan fasting month and Hari Raya
Puasa festival, the sales are even bigger and merrier. For the first time, the
1Malaysia Mega Sale Carnival is held simultaneously with the 1Malaysia Unified
Sale from 29 June to 1 September 2013. The 1Malaysia Mega Sale Carnival is
organized by TOURISM MALAYSIA as a build-up to VMY 2014.
In conjunction with the two sales festivals, an array of sales and promotional
activities await everyone including locals and tourists alike. Among the activities
are:
- ‘The KL Fashion Weekend 2013’, an event full of glitz and glamour and
modeled after the London Fashion Weekend
- ‘Bejeweled’ event by the nine shopping malls in the premier KL shopping
precinct, BBKLCC or Bukit Bintang-KLCC area.
- ‘Buy it for Free with Credit & Debit MasterCard’ programme where Master
Card holders spotted during the sales period will be rewarded.
- Sales and promotional activities during Ramadan month and Hari Raya
celebration are bustling in Ramadan bazaars and markets, and shopping malls.
All kinds of everything on sale everywhere.
Tourists from the world over are attracted to shop in Malaysia which offers them
affordability, great value, shopping convenience, diversity of products and
gracious hospitality. From the very old to the ultra modern, the mundane to the
unique, the simple to the exotic, the discounted to the duty-free items, tourists can
just shop for anything and everything that tickles their fancy. Every city
nationwide is thriving with sales, especially within Kuala Lumpur which best
encapsulates the ‘Malaysia Truly Asia’ spirit with its eclectic mix of old and new,
fusion of cultures and lifestyles of its multi-racial communities. Some of the
famous and finest shopping malls in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor are Bukit
Bintang Plaza, Sungai Wang Plaza, Lot 10, Pavilion, Fahrenheit, Starhill,
Pavilion KL, Suria KLCC, Mid Valley Megamall, Sunway Pyramid, 1Utama,
Bangsar Shopping Complex and Bangsar Village.
  
Visit Malaysia Year 2014 celebrates a year-long of non-stop sale activities and
shopping extravaganza. This is the perfect time and place for the most memorable
shopping experience with endless things to see, do, buy and enjoy.

Example 2: Facebook Fan Page Status

Do you wanna get high? I mean, literally, you can be on top of the highest peak in
South East Asia by beating the challenge of climbing 4.095,2m. Fortunately, Mt
Kinabalu is one of the easiest peaks in the world to conquer. It takes just two days
and climbers don't need any previous experience at mountain climbing. At
sunrise, the views from the Mt Kinabalu's summit at Low's Peak are spectacular,
making all the effort worthwhile.