Ms. Phonemaly Inthaphome, Director General, Tourism Development Department, MOICT (L) and Malaysian Ambassador to Laos Edi Irwan cut  ribbon to open Malaysia Truly Asia Festival in Vientiane on Sep 16.

(KPL) The Tourism Malaysia is organizing the Malaysia Truly Asia Festival in Vientiane between Sep 16 and 17 to introduce Malaysia’s tourism potential to Lao and foreign travelers.

Held at Pakson, the event draws over 20 booths representing Tourism Malaysia, Lao National Tourism (Tourism Development Department), and travel agents namely Vientiane Travel, Ninhomlao Tour, Next Travel, Worldwide Travel, Analine Travel, VENUTO Travel, Deluxe World Tour, Family tour, MD Travel and Laos Destination Travel Service.

This is the second Malaysia Truly Asia Festival in Vientiane after a while due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The Festival today coincided with Malaysia National Day and Malaysia Day celebrations, it was a celebration of not only Malaysia’s independence but a celebration of Malaysia as a family,” said today Malaysian Ambassador to Laos Edi Irwan.

Ms. Phonemaly Inthaphome, Director General, Tourism Development Department, Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism and representatives of diplomatic corps also attended the event.

“Malaysia celebrated its 66^th National Day and on Sep 16, which is today, we are celebrating the 60^th Malaysia’s Day with the theme “Malaysia MADANI : Tekad Perpaduan Penuhi Harapan” or “Malaysia Madani: Unity Determined, Fulfilling Hope,” said Ambassador Edi Irwan.

Between January and December 2022, Malaysia recorded over 7,000 Lao tourist arrivals to Malaysia and 8,340 for 6 months from January-June 2023, an increase of 624.6% compared to 2022.

As for 2023, Malaysia has set its target of 16.1million international tourist arrivals with RM 49.2 billion (USD11.19 billion) tourism revenue.

As of now, we do understand that Laos doesn’t have direct flights to Malaysia but I believe that it is not impossible. You still can travel to Malaysia by taking Scoot Air, from Vientiane to Singapore then cross the border to Malaysia through Johor Bahru border or fly with AirAsia or Thai Airways transit in Bangkok then to Kuala Lumpur.

Among activities that will be carried out for the 2 days event are stage performances, Malaysian cultural dance performance, games, quizzes and each travel agent will be invited to the stage to promote their companies with various Malaysia tour packages.

There will also be a lucky draw to give away coupons to those who have made their reservation and pay the deposit for their Malaysia tour packages.

KPL