Festival-Macau

2007-10-18 10:15 (New York)

Festival-Macau
MACAU AIMS TO ATTRACT 400,000 MALAYSIAN TOURISTS THIS YEAR

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 18 (Bernama) -- Relatively unknown to most
Malaysians, Macau aims to double the arrival of Malaysian tourists to the
state to 400,000 this year through aggressive marketing and promotion.

The Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) Representative in Malaysia,
Tunku Iskandar Tunku Abdullah, who is also Pacific Travel's group
president, said they aimed to attract more Malaysian Muslims to the state
too.

He said at present Macau was visited mostly by Malaysian Chinese due to
the belief that most tourism products offered by the state were not
attractive enough for non-Chinese.

To change the perception, a four-day festival was held by MGTO at The
Curve Piazza, Mutiara Damansara, here to provide Malaysians a glimpse of
the unique blend of Western and Oriental cultures of Macau, he said.

"As we all know, Chinese are the main visitors of Macau, but through
this festivals, we hope we can create greater awareness to the general
public, including to the non-Chinese that there are more places that you
can visit and enjoy yourselves, including the theme park and shopping
complexes," he told reporters after launching the festival, here today.

He pointed out that contrary to some beliefs, it was not difficult to
get halal food in Macau as there were Muslim restaurants as well as
mosques.

"The number of halal restaurants is expected to increase as the state
is currently promoting its products in the Middle East," he said.
He added that last year, Macau had received 202,821 tourists from
Malaysia while for the first nine months of this year, a total of 256,264
Malaysians had visited the state.

The festival which began today offers, among others, various cultural
performances such as Portuguese Dances, Chinese Acrobatics and Chinese
Opera performances, which are part of the Macau culture.

Apart from experiencing the uniqueness of the Macau culture, visitors
to the festival also have the opportunity to find the best deal to visit
Macau as six travel agents have set up booths offering attractive holiday
and travel packages.

-- BERNAMA