(KPL) The Malaysian Food and Cultural Festival is being held at the National Culture Hall from 17 September through 20 September.

Mr Savankhon Razmountry and Mr Chaleun Valinthalasack, both Deputy Ministers of the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, Malaysian Ambassador to the Lao PDR Dato Than Tai Hing, government officials, representatives of tour agencies, and invited guests attended the opening ceremony.

“The festival aims to provide a platform for travel trade players to meet and share experiences,” said Tourism Malaysia’s Deputy Director General of International Promotion, Dato Haji Azizan Noordin. 

“It will also provide Malaysia’s tourism players the opportunity to strengthen ties and network with their Lao counterparts,” he said.

Dato Azizan went on that the event provides a good opportunity for Tourism Malaysia officials and members of the Malaysia travel industries to understand the present market trends and new developments in the Lao outbound travel market.

“I hope that this festival will not only promote the Malaysia tourism potential to the Lao people, but also to inspire more travel agents from Laos to create more exciting and attractive packages for Lao tourists to visit Malaysia,” Dato Azizan said.

There were around 20 booths from Laos and Malaysia displaying their products at the Malaysian Food and Cultural Festival.

This event is part of the celebration of the 58^th anniversary of Malaysia National Day and 52^nd Malaysia Day.

Tourism Malaysia has partnered with AirAsia for this event as they are the only airline that services Kuala Lumpur and Vientiane three times a week.  It also plans to start a new route between Kuala Lumpur and Luang Prabang early next year.

Last year, the number of Lao nationals who visited Malaysia was more than 26,000, which was a decrease of 25.4 per cent when compared to the previous year.  Dato Azizan said that he believes that through the new Kuala Lumpur-Luang Prabang route, the number of Lao visitors to Malaysia will increase.

KPL