KUALA LUMPUR: Langkawi and Kuching have been selected by Tourism Malaysia as travel destinations for the Covid-19-Free Destination Programme.
Tourism Malaysia director-general Zulkifly Md Said the programme would eventually be expanded to popular resort islands such as Pulau Redang, Pulau Perhentian and Pulau Tioman as well as other attractions in states such as Johor, Melaka, Penang and Sabah.
He was speaking at the virtual launch of the "Foliday 2.0 GoTraz, Go Live, Go Explore" tourism programme last night.
The event was a collaboration between the Malaysia Inbound Chinese Association (MICA) and GoTraz Sdn Bhd, a tourism-based entity that promotes virtual and real-world tourism activities.
"Tourism Malaysia will position Malaysia as the Top-of-the-Mind Ecotourism Destination of the World as part of its long-term promotional efforts.
"In terms of the abundance of land and natural landscapes, Malaysia should be able to compete directly with other eco destinations," Zulkifli said.
He noted that the challenge ahead for the tourism industry was not in seeing recovery within this year, or even next year, but hinged on how the country would prepare for long-term success, and reinvent global travel.
MICA president Datuk Dr Angie Ng said the one-year joint collaboration with GoTraZ will showcase 52 weekly programmes on eight tourism themes - mountains, tropical forests, hotels & resorts, self-driving tours, InstaGram spots, cuisines, scuba diving and islands.
"Besides focusing on travel destinations and exciting leisure activities, there will also be presentations by tour guides on their insights and experiences," she added, saying that the programme, which would be from 8pm to 9pm every Friday, was expected to attract some 700,000 viewers from Malaysia, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
"Advances in technological developments and greater Internet usage around the world have enabled virtual tourism, also known as smart tourism, to be used in many facets of our exciting travel and tourism industry," said Amleisure Group chief executive officer and GoTraZ founder Ada Poon.
"With the Covid-19 pandemic restricting where and when people can go, this has necessitated that hotels, destinations and other industry players to begin employing more creative ideas to set new trends," she added.
Poon, who is also chairman of the Women and Young Entrepreneurs Division of SME Association of Malaysia, noted that entrepreneurs who had gotten on the virtual tourism and travel bandwagon, were poised for better business when the world returned to normal and travellers started packing their bags again.