14 May 2002KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand banded together for the first time to collectively sell ASEAN to Central Asia.
The team participated in the Third Kazakstan International Travel Fair held recently in Almaty, Kazakstan’s capital.
Representing Malaysia were the general manager of the Mutiara Burau Bay Beach Resort Langkawi, Abdul Razak Abdul Kadir, and manager of Tourland Travel, Michael Chandran.
Abdul Razak said there was strong interest in Malaysia as it is a new market for Central Asia.
"This former Soviet state and its neighbouring Central Asian states of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, with a total population of 80 million, are rapidly developing and its people are looking to travel to exciting destinations like Malaysia."
Apart from marketing their own individual nations, the ASEAN representatives also placed emphasis on intra-ASEAN packages, such as Langkawi/Phuket/Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur/ Langkawi/Singapore, Kuala Lumpur/Langkawi/Bali, and Langkawi/Borneo.