Tourism Selangor reaching out to European market

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PETALING JAYA: Tourism Selangor delegates were recently in Germany to showcase the state’s tourism appeal to the European market and carried out activities to woo visitors.

This despite the cancellation of one of the world’s largest trade fair, ITB Berlin (Internationale Tourismus-Börse Berlin), following the Covid-19 outbreak.

They were in Berlin from March 2-6.

Tourism Selangor in a statement said that among the main priorities of the trip were the business-to-business (B2B) sessions to engage with Berlin-based tour, travel and PR agencies.

“One of the sessions was the Preview to Selangor Up-Close 2020, a sneak peek on the entry requirements of the travelogue competition’s first-ever Europe edition, ” it said yesterday.

Selangor Tourism noted that Selangor Up-Close 2020 was exclusively extended to European media, content creators, travel bloggers and vloggers, and social media influencers.

“Selected entrants will be taken on an all-sponsored six-day five-night trip to Selangor from Aug 4 -9, ” it said.

It also conducted a government-to-government (G2G) session at the embassy with Malaysian ambassador to Germany Datin Sarah Albakri Devadason and Tourism Malaysia officers in Berlin.

“Tourism Selangor also had an online and live streaming session with industry players to discuss further on the resurgence of the tourism industry after the cancellation of ITB Berlin due to Covid-19.

“Through this visit, Selangor through Tourism Selangor is making a bold move by reaching out to the European market to attract them to travel to Selangor and hitting the target of having eight million tourists in the state by end of the year in conjunction with Visit Malaysia 2020, ” it added.

The World Tourism Organisation had called on governments, international organisations and donor agencies to continue to include tourism as a priority in recovery plans and actions.

Meanwhile, Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari said that Selangor would decide soon on measures to fight the spread of Covid-19.

Amirudin said they would advise on the size of public programmes that would be allowed, among others.

“For now, we have instructed that all events involving thousands of people to be postponed, ” he said.