World Tourism Organization

The “Amazing New Chapter: Rediscover Thailand Get ready to go to Thailand” promotion is focusing on the airline’s Singapore-Don Mueang and Singapore-Phuket routes.

This collaboration will explore mutually beneficial initiatives that will drive inbound tourism to Malaysia.

As of February 28, the number of international tourist arrivals has reached 47,715, of which 26,306 foreign visitors and 21,409 are balikbayans.

UNWTO and the Asian Development Bank have launched a joint report on the use of big data for better tourism planning and management.

According to UNWTO latest World Tourism Barometer, the massive drop in international travel demand over the period January-June 2020 translates into a loss of 440 million international arrivals and about US$ 460 billion in export revenues from international tourism.

A full visa liberalisation scenario would generate additional spending of €12.5bn per annum

The report said that Thailand recorded a total tourism expenditure of USD57 billion in 2017, ahead of Japan (USD34 billion), Hong Kong (USD33 billion), China (USD33 billion) and Taiwan (USD12 billion).

The increase was fuelled by strong demand from major source markets, supported by an upswing in the global economy. It comes after record year-round growth of 7% in 2017.

UNWTO will focus on five pillars for the period 2018-2019: innovation and the digital transformation; investments and entrepreneurship; education and employment; safe, secure and seamless travel; and social, cultural and environmental sustainability.

With the theme “2025 Silk Road Tourism Agenda”; the Ministers and Heads of the National Tourism Administrations shared their main ideas and strategies, which bring together 34 countries, Malaysia having become the latest member to join this initiative spearheaded by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).