The Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents and the Cruise Lines International Association has formed a partnership to increase cruise tourism in Malaysia.
The two organisations signed a Memorandum of Understanding earlier this week.
MATTA’s president, Datuk Tan Kok Liang said that cruise is fast becoming a major tourism initiative for Malaysia.
The partnership will include educating agents as well as consumers about the cruise industry.
“Cruise is one of the fastest growing leisure travel segments globally and has been picking up steam in Malaysia. According to the CLIA’s Asia Cruise Trends Report 2018, Malaysian cruise source passenger count nearly doubled in 2017, an increase of 87.8k passengers, or about 88% up year over year,” said Datuk Tan.
“Meanwhile, the number of international cruise call to local ports has grown to 599 at 2017 compared to 435 at 2016. The number of intermediate stops by international cruise holiday ships is expected to grow to 628 by year 2020.”
The managing director for CLIA Australasia and Asia, Joel Katz said, “The signing of this MoU would align the efforts of CLIA and MATTA to create exciting opportunities that will benefit the cruise industry.
We look forward to working together with MATTA to promote the growth of cruise tourism in Malaysia.”
