To satisfy the pent-up demand for travel, the Malaysian Association
of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) announced the MATTA Fair will be held
from 20-21 November at the Putra World Centre in Kuala Lumpur. The last
fair was held in September 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic.
MATTA
CEO Phua Tai Neng said currently 248 booths have been taken up with
participation from 64 organisations. “There is participation from almost
all state tourism organisations, namely Sabah, Terengganu, Sarawak,
Pahang, Selangor, Johor, Kedah, Perak and Negeri Sembilan.
“Besides Tourism Malaysia, which is taking up 30 booths, we also have
international tourism organisations from South Korea, Taiwan,
Philippines, Japan, Turkey and Uganda. These international tourism
organisations want to promote their markets as they are anticipating the
return of travel demand very soon,” said Phua. He added that there
would be the usual travel companies, hotels and theme parks in the mix.
“With international borders not fully opened, and many countries not
pushing yet for regular international travel and flight frequency
updates, the demand would likely come from domestic travel…There is now
pent-up demand due to increased public confidence from the public to
travel safely and a desire to return to normalcy, not to mention the
upcoming school holiday that is encouraging planning,” noted MATTA Hon
Secretary-general Nigel Wong.

MATTA Hon Secretary-general Nigel Wong noted there is now pent-up demand due to increased public confidence from the public to travel safely and a desire to return to normalcy.
The upcoming MATTA Fair 2021's official partners include Sabah as
Malaysia’s Favourite Destination, Malaysia Airlines the Official
Airline, Legoland as Partner Theme Park and Gojo as e-hailing partner.
MATTA is looking at 25,000 visitors as the estimated attendance,
referenced from the scaled-down Cuti2 Malaysia Fair in April last year
that was eventually cancelled.
The fair will offer free entry to the public and a 50% booth rental
discount to help both public and tourism stakeholders. This 49th edition
has been scaled down from three to two days and will only have two
halls.
Phua
promised strict compliance with safety SOPs. Only fully vaccinated
visitors will be allowed entry, with face masks being mandatory and
enforced physical distancing among exhibitors and visitors. Crowd
control will be implemented, and more updates will be announced once
booth participation has been confirmed.
Wong also said they did not make it a hybrid fair as that would
require more resources from exhibitors, but there are future plans for
virtual formats.