Eager holidaymakers throng travel fair

Visitors at the Penang Matta Fair 2022 at Setia SPICE Arena in Bayan Lepas, Penang. - LIM BENG TATT/The Star

AFTER almost three years of being cooped up in Penang, B. Malathi and her family are ready to travel the world.

The last trip Malathi, 37, and her family made was to Medan, Indonesia, in 2019.

“With Covid-19 still around, we won’t venture too far, but we definitely need this break,” she said.

While trying to narrow the travel destination to Bangkok in Thailand or Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, Malathi recently went shopping for holiday packages with her parents and younger brother at the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) Fair 2022 at Setia SPICE Arena in Bayan Baru, Penang.

Malathi, who works in procurement, said she had been waiting for the fair to return because it let her compare travel and tour packages.

She preferred packaged tours since she would be travelling with her parents who are in their 60s.

Another holiday shopper, who wished to be known only as Tay, 47, was with his wife and son at the fair singling out the best trip options for South Korea.

“At fairs like these, we can see all our options in one place. Sometimes, we can even learn about destinations we may not have thought about or known of,” he said.

The travel fair, which took place last weekend, featured 160 booths occupied by travel agents, state tourism organisations, hotels, theme parks, family attractions and cruise ship agents.

Penang MATTA Fair 2022 chairman Carolyn Leong said she hoped this fair would increase the income of tour agents who had weathered the pandemic storm.

“We know it took a toll on the tourism industry and with this event, we hope to change that,” she said.

State tourism and creative economy committee chairman Yeoh Soon Hin, who launched the fair, said it was wonderful to see the return of the fair after a two-year hiatus.

“Like many other travel fairs, the Penang MATTA Fair is one of the many ways to drive the tourism economy and allow consumers to discover the best travel deals, while generating opportunities for all those in the tourism ecosystem,” he said.

Those who attended the fair stood a chance to win 16 flight tickets offered in a lucky draw, including two tickets to Los Angeles, the United States.

For every RM500 spent on domestic packages and every RM1,000 spent on international packages at the fair, customers were given opportunities to participate in the lucky draw.